A Steel Ranked Adventure
by ZGW
Summary: "I slay Goblins. Nothing else." That is what Goblin Slayer, the Adventurer dedicated to killing every Goblin he can find, lives by. But when a breed of Goblin he's never encountered before reveals themselves to him he has to abandon his usual daily Goblin Slaying to go on something he never expected... an adventure.
1. A Quest to Slay Goblins

As with every day on the ranch Goblin Slayer woke up well before sunrise, in the early hours when Goblins would most likely be out scouting. He did not open his eyes immediately upon waking, instead continuing to lie still in his makeshift bed above the barn. He listened to the sounds around him, attentive for anything out of the ordinary. The animals below breathed steady in their sleep, the wind rustled the leaves of the trees outside, and there was the buzz of a few insects.

No light steps and soft creaking of floorboards of a Goblin coming to stab him in his sleep. No whispered talks in the disgusting snarls and grunts that made up the Goblin language as they made plans to raid the ranch. No panicked clucking coming from the hen house of a Goblin stealing away a chicken. No cries from the house as Goblins murdered the Rancher and stole away…

Goblin Slayer opened his eyes and flicked them towards the window that pointed towards the small house of the Rancher and his Niece. Her room was dark as it always was at this hour, the boards over it firmly shut. 'Good, she has heeded my advice.' He thought as he now scanned his space above the barn. He had warned her against leaving her window open and herself visible after he had seen her undressing while returning one night. She had sputtered and turned red when he told her and he had worried that she misunderstood or ignored his warning.

Finding no unusual shadows in the corners or the rafters he got up from his bed and dressed quickly. His armor, ever by his side, was quickly put back on and his sword tied back onto his belt. He made sure to tuck his Steel Adventurers Guild tag securely under his shirt and chest plate before putting on his helmet and picking up his shield with his left hand. Once again in his comfortable second skin and ready to begin the day Goblin Slayer descended the ladder from his room down into the barn.

The animals hardly stirred as he marched past and left the barn to stand in the open air. There wasn't a cloud in the night sky to hide the brilliant array of stars or the white and green glow of the twin moons. Daybreak wouldn't be for another couple of hours but he could still patrol and search for less obvious signs of Goblin scouts in the meantime. So for the next few hours he walked the ranch, checking every bush for fresh Goblin shit and inspecting the locks and fences for tampering. By dawn Goblin Slayer was satisfied that there had been no Goblins around during his slumber.

"Good morning!" A cheerful voice said coming up behind him as he watched the sunrise. He turned to find the Rancher's Niece standing behind him smiling. "You woke up early again."

"Yes." He answered simply.

"Do you always wake up so early or only when you stay here?" She asked as she moved to stand next to him, the wind waving her pink hair over her pretty and equally pink eyes. "I can't imagine you get up to investigate for Goblins at every inn you stay at. Especially the ones in towns!" She giggled.

"I do." Goblin Slayer answered and she stopped giggling. "Goblins will pillage villages and farms for supplies and women. Nests without leaders will do so until they have sufficient numbers and then go and destroy the nearest village or farm to their nest. They unwittingly cut off their easiest source of food, materials, and women. But those with leaders like Shamans…" He paused and watched the sun for a moment and the field dew sparkle in its light.

"Once they reach suitable numbers they ignore the villages and farms that were their early targets, at least at first. They set their sights on the nearest town and destroy it, taking everything they can carry. What they take will be worth much more than raiding a few villages and farms and eliminate the nearest source of protection the area has." The girl looked away from him and down at the ground.

"Then they will have free reign over the area, taking and destroying what they wish until everyone either leaves or is killed. And then they will die, either of starvation or in fighting." He turned to look at her and she managed to look back up at him and his eyes beneath the shadow of his helmet. "And then there will be nothing left but wind and ruins."

"…I'm sorry!" She said suddenly turning away.

"For what?" Goblin Slayer asked, confused.

"For doubting you. You know more about Goblins than anybody so I shouldn't question you about them. Or your ways of dealing with them." She explained not looking back at him. "I'm not even an Adventurer like you."

"It's alright." He said, looking back at the sunrise. "Not many people think about Goblins unless they have to. And from what I've seen most Adventurers do not take Quests to clear out Goblin nests past the Steel rank."

"Will you?" She asked finally turning to look at him again. "You're… you're Steel rank, right? You said that if you clear out just a few more nests that you'll be ranked Sapphire next, right?" Her breath left her as he turned to look at her, his eyes staring straight into her soul from beneath his helmet.

"I slay Goblins. Nothing else." Goblin Slayer said with finality.

"…Well, that's good!" She said, putting on a smile. "I'm… I'm glad someone is!" She then turned and started walking towards the farm house before he could say anything else. "Uncle should have breakfast done by now!"

"…Yes." He said to himself taking one last look at the sun before following after her.

* * *

The Adventurers Guild in the nearest city was always busy, from sunup to sundown. Adventurers from all over the frontier gathered to this central location to find work through Quests, form a party, and discuss their craft with each other. From the new Porcelain ranked, fresh faced and ready for their first adventure, to the Silver ranked, who everyone gave wide berths to make way for. There were Humans, Dwarves, Elves, Halflings, Gnomes, and occasionally a mixed half race or member of a beast race like a Lizardman.

None of this interested Goblin Slayer. As soon as he entered he joined the line to get a Quest to slay Goblins. The workers at the Guild had learned a while ago to keep Quests around Goblins behind the counter with them. Otherwise they would pile up on the Quest Board where'd they'd go ignored by most other Adventurers. This way he wouldn't have to go through the crowd to get the details and then wait in line to take the Quest.

"Hey, Goblin Boy!" A voice called out and suddenly an arm was wrapped around his shoulder. Goblin Slayer turned his head to find a Human man with chestnut hair and red eyes clad in plate armor with a spear smiling at him. Coming up behind him was a beautiful Human woman with long purple hair and gold eyes in a pointed hat and revealing dress who was also smiling. "Here for another Goblin nest Quest?"

"Ye-" Goblin Slayer tried to answer before he was cut off.

"Of course… he is." The Sorceress said for him slowly, her accent thick. "His name would be… false advertising… otherwise."

"You ever get tired of killing things that barely come up to your waist Gobby?" The Lancer asked as the line moved forward, his arm still around his shoulder.

"Shamans can grow to chest height for myself and Hobgoblins a few feet above me, let alone the difference in width." Goblin Slayer answered plainly.

"Ah, but those are pretty uncommon right?!" Lancer said back. "How many nests have even one of them?"

"One in four." Goblin Slayer answered immediately. "And the number has risen over the past year." He walked up to reception desk now that it was his turn, leaving the Lancer and Sorceress behind. "Goblin Slaying." He said simply to the receptionist.

"Um, w-what?" The receptionist said as she looked at him. "If you bring me a Quest from the board I can…" She trailed off looking at him nervously. Goblin Slayer looked her up and down and realized that she was new, having never seen her light brown hair and golden eyes before.

"He means…" The Sorceress said behind him. "The Goblin Slaying Quests… they keep behind… the counter… just for him."

"For, for him?!" The Guild Girl stammered as she began to look around her area in a panic. "But nobody told me that there'd be special Quests being held!"

"Stop." Goblin Slayer commanded and she froze in place. "Two drawers to your right, one down." He instructed and she pulled out a two pieces of paper which after quickly reading over to confirm they were Goblin Slaying Quests she handed to him.

"Yeah, you're new right?" Lancer asked as he slid up to the reception desk. "I would have noticed a girl as cute as you before!"

'Goblin spotted near a farm to the Southwest. Haven't stolen any animals or encroached on land yet. Survivor from former nest, scout, or just a nest getting started?' He thought to himself reading over the first Quest.

"Oh, um, thank you!" The Guild Girl said blushing. "I just started this morning! And it's already so busy!"

'Six Goblins kidnapped a young woman from a village to the East early this morning. No sounds of struggle, they were seen carrying away her limb body. Father pursued, following trail of her clothing and was ambushed on a trail. Escaped with no injuries.' Goblin Slayer read over the second Quest, his mind spinning over the details.

"Yeah, well only the super serious Adventurers show this ear-" The Lancer started to say before he was interrupted.

"Is this information accurate?" Goblin Slayer asked, showing the Quest details back to the Guild Girl.

"Um, I believe so." The girl answered as Lancer huffed at having been interrupted. "I didn't take down the information though…"

"Something wrong… Goblin Slayer?" The Sorceress asked, coming up to look at the Quest details. She nestled against his arm letting it rest between her breasts which turned the Guild Girl red and made the Lancer roll his eyes.

"Goblins rarely attack early in the morning which is their time to go to sleep. They somehow managed to subdue a woman with little noise and render her unconscious which is unlike them. They took off her clothes piece by piece as they carried her away instead of at their nest. And they ambushed her father on a trail, not at their nest." He listed off. "This is… very strange behavior."

"Maybe they're not Goblins but a bunch of horny Gnomes painted green." The Lancer joked.

"…I'll take this one." Goblin Slayer said handing the Quest details back to the Guild Girl. "If it is Goblins then I can still save the girl and the other won't be threatening for a few more days."

"Very good!" The Guild Girl accepted happily. "Good luck!"

"Happy hunting… Goblin Slayer." The Sorceress said as she disentangled herself from him. The Lancer huffed and turned back to the Guild Girl, eager to resume his flirting.

"Yes." He said as he turned and made for the exit, ready to hunt some Goblins.

* * *

The day was beautiful as Goblin Slayer traveled East, not a cloud in the bright blue sky and a soft breeze to keep him cool as he walked. The flowers were in bloom and birds sang as they flew overhead. Rabbits dashed through the underbrush and hopped around nibbling on the grass. It was what many would consider a perfect day.

'Something is not right about this.' Goblin Slayer thought as he surveyed the land around him. It was mostly farm fields with few hills and scattered trees and bushes. 'There's no woods thick enough to hide in so where could their nest be hidden? There are no ruins. And cave opening in the fields would be too obvious and would have been spotted long ago.'

He swung his gaze across the ground as he left the road to go down the trail that the girl's Father had reportedly followed the Goblins down. Already he could see the tracks of half a dozen Goblins, with a large boot occasionally disrupting them. The boots prints followed the Goblin tracks and went against them, showing that the Father had retreated down the same path he had followed the Goblins. Goblin Slayer followed for about ten minutes before he came across dried blood splattered on the ground and a discarded crude dagger caked in blood.

Kneeling down he picked up the dagger and inspected it. 'Old, not cared for or sharpened in a long time. Did this belong to a Goblin or the Father?' He thought as he ran his fingers over the clean side and found no build up on his glove fingertips. 'No poison. No blood trail along the path I came. So it's the Father's, he managed to cut a Goblin before retreating. Why did they let him escape?'

Standing Goblin Slayer looked around at the empty fields around the spot. 'If this was the spot of the ambush then how did the Goblins hide? There are no bushes and the grass is not tall enough.' He wondered as he left the trail and explored the area more now a little on edge. Nothing so far had been typical of a Goblin Slaying Quest. Normally he would be searching for a cave or nest in a densely back forest or by a river or inside of an old ruin. Goblins didn't like open fields where it was impossible to hide in shadows and they could be easily picked off by an archer.

There was no blood on the grass around the area so whatever wound the Father had dealt to the Goblin must not have been serious. 'Or there is a Shaman with them.' Goblin Slayer thought getting back on the trail and continuing on. 'But they rarely ever leave their nests. Stranger and stranger.' He picked up his pace, not liking this Quest at all.

He walked for another five minutes before he came across the first piece of clothing, a single sock laid in the middle of the trail. It was obviously too big for a Goblin, who occasionally wore stolen clothes although they seemed partial to hats. But it was too small for any normal man so it must have belonged to the woman. Continuing on he found more clothes over the hour he followed the Goblins trail. A hair cap, a torn brassiere, a ripped pair of underwear, and strips of cloth that he realized were formerly her night gown ripped to shreds.

That was it, these Goblins, if they were Goblins which Goblin Slayer was beginning to doubt, were purposely leaving a trail to follow. They had either torn her dress apart and then carried the strips to leave behind them or torn of a strip off every few minutes as they walked until nothing was left. Both of these actions were against typical Goblin behavior who upon seeing naked female flesh would have frenzied. They would have had their way with her until a little after she died. Or if she was giving birth to their children, which would not be possible for another day at best.

Her clothes were also clean of Goblin semen and blood. He also hadn't seen any dried semen on the trail which would show where they had stopped to rape her or even spots where they would have masturbated at the sight of her. It was common for lesser Goblins to sate themselves this way when higher ranked ones had personal females they fiercely defended.

Goblin Slayer was starting to think that this may actually be a horny group of Gnomes painted green. Green Gnomes wearing shoes that looked like Goblin feet.

He continued walking, his hand resting on his sword and sense high for anything more out of the ordinary. He didn't have to wait long.

"…elp!" A voice called in the distance. "…Help! …Anybody!" Looking around Goblin Slayer saw a large oak tree on top of a small hill in the distance to the North. From here he couldn't be sure but he thought he could see a figure moving next to the tree trunk. As if to confirm that this is where he needed to go the Goblin tracks turned off the trail and towards the hill.

It was about noon so he could see the entirety of the hill with perfect clarity as he approached. And he saw no Goblins, just a naked young woman with her arms tied around a tree trunk with rope. Goblin Slayer gripped the hilt of his sword so hard that his knuckles turned white under his gloves. Marching up the hill the woman spotted him and called out as if he couldn't already see her.

"Oh thank the Gods!" She cried as he approached her. She was on her knees with her chest pressed against the tree, arms held in place around the trunk by rope. "Oh thank you sir, please cut me free!"

"Where?" Goblin Slayer growled. She blinked and looked up at him as he stopped in front of her.

"Wh- What?" She stammered as she stared into his eyes glaring down at her.

"The Goblins!" He roared, his voice rusty at not having been brought to this volume in a long time. "Where are they?!"

"I- I," she tried to speak as he glared at her his hand clenching over the hilt of his sword, "I d- don't remember any Goblins! I just r- remember waking up to a hand putting something over my mouth and then I woke up here!" Goblin Slayer snarled and turned to walk away from her. "Wait! Where are you going?!"

He ignored her as he started to search the hill for any traces of the Goblins. The tracks had separated once they reached the tree and presumably tied the woman to the tree, spreading out in different directions. They sometimes ran over each other and it became clear that some were deliberately deeper than others. The Goblins had stomped around trying to throw off anyone trying to follow them now.

But the tracks never left the hill. 'They're still here. It's noon so they would normally be asleep… but anything goes now.' Goblin Slayer thought as he began to scan the areas where there were no tracks, looking for irregularities.

Eventually he found one not by sight, but by smell.

While walking back up the hill a breeze carried the familiar stench of Goblin shit, a unique aroma that never changed no matter what they ate. Not making any noticeable changes in his walk Goblin Slayer flicked his eyes to his left and scanned the ground. About fifteen feet away was a space of grass that seemed… out of place and did not move in the wind as well as the others blades.

'Found you, you filthy animal.' He snarled in his mind ready to get to what he had come out here for. Casually he turned left and began to walk to the spot, the smell getting stronger. When he was about three feet away he drew his sword and lunged at the spot. His sword pierced through a collection of flimsy boards with mud and grass on top and plunged into the darkness. It met the familiar resistance of flesh and bone along with the death cry of a Goblin.

Pulling his bloody sword out of the hole he saw a dead Goblin, its chest torn open and gushing blood. Its face was twisted in pain and its goat like eyes bulged out. "One." He said as he pulled his arm back to stab it again and make sure it was dead.

There was a great cry and all over the hill five Goblins burst out of the ground, carrying weapons and shrieking in their terrible language. The woman tied to the tree also shrieked, terrified at the sudden arrival of the creatures and what her fate could be at their hands.

'Five, no Shaman, no Hobs.' Goblin Slayer noted as he turned to them, shield and sword ready. He watched them move, not as fast as they'd be in a cave or in their nest and squinting their eyes in the sunlight. They were creatures unused to fighting in the open or out of the darkness.

'Two daggers, one club, one short sword, and one bow.' He counted the weapons they each carried. His eyes settled on the one with the bow, who wore a crude hood to hide its face. Unlike the others it wasn't grouping up to get ready to rush him and wasn't snarling or shrieking, but was quiet.

It just watched him from behind its hood, arrow nocked and ready in its bow.

"Nah!" The nearest Goblin with a dagger screamed as it rushed forward at him, leaping in the air to try and stab him in the neck. Goblin Slayer brought his shield up to catch the Goblin and threw him down to the ground hard. In the moment before the Goblin could scurry away or swipe at his legs Goblin Slayer brought his right foot down hard on the Goblin's neck. He was rewarded with a delicious snapping sound, a moment of twitching, and a now limb Goblin.

"Two." He said as the other Goblins snarled at him, except the one in the hood. There was a tense moment as the three Goblins finished grouping together in front of the one in the hood about a hundred feet away and waited for an opening. Goblin Slayer took a step toward them and then another, stepping over their dead brother, before two of them sprang forward.

"Gah!" The one with the club ran left while the last dagger user went right. "Rashnah!"

Seeing what they were trying a mile away Goblin Slayer made use of one of the skills he had picked up as an Adventurer. Training his eye on the Goblin with the dagger he pulled back his sword arm and threw his short sword as if it were nothing more than a throwing knife.

The blade flew through the air and impaled itself right between the Goblin's goat like eyes, almost splitting its skull in half. Blood showered out around the blade and the Goblin went cross eyed trying to look at the sword. Its momentum carried it forward for a few more steps until it fell to the ground, landing so that the pommel hit the ground and drove the sword in farther. "Three." He said as he turned in time to catch the club wielding Goblin with his shield.

He fell back as if the Goblin weighed much more than it did, letting the creature climb on to his shield to get above him. "Rah!" It cried out. Reaching back with his now empty right hand he picked up the dagger from the hands of the Goblin with the broken neck. When the Goblin climbed over the shield, with its club raised high to try and smash his helmet and a wicked grin on its face, he swung his arm. The crude dagger slipped through the Goblin's ear and into its skull with a practiced ease. The monster ceased its movement and went limp as its eyes rolled back into its head.

"Four." Goblin Slayer said as the club wielding Goblin fell to the ground, blood seeping out from the dagger embedded ear to soak the grass. He kept his eyes on the remaining two Goblins as he picked up the now free club at his feet from. The one with the bow remained silent as ever but the one with the short sword was looking between Goblin Slayer and behind himself to the hooded Goblin. He had seen this behavior before, when outside of their nests Goblins would flee when things became dire hence why he always tried to fight them at their homes. That way they would always come straight at him until either he or they were dead.

"Sha thaw rah!" Eventually it cried out and ran away from both of them down the hill, throwing away its sword to flee faster. Before Goblin Slayer could decide whether to pursue it or stay and deal with the hooded Goblin something unexpected happened.

The hooded Goblin turned towards to its fleeing brother, pulled back the arrow nocked in its bow, and fired. The arrow sailed through the air and struck the back of the Goblin's skull. The Goblin tripped and fell to the ground, unmoving. Goblin Slayer stood there, shield raised for when the Goblin turned its bow on him, staring at this odd behavior. There was moment of silence as the hooded Goblin turned back to him, silent and staring. All that could be heard was the wind rustling the grass and leaves of the tree and the sobbing of the naked young woman forgotten about by both of them.

"Five." A voice said, cracking from little use.

It took Goblin Slayer a second to realize it wasn't his.

And for the first time in a long time his blood went cold.

"…You are as tough as Father says, Kin Killer." The hooded Goblin spoke, nocking another arrow and now pointing it at him. "You have not taken more than five steps since discovering us and already four of my brothers are dead. I should have had us leave the girl altogether and just watched from a distance."

Goblin Slayer could barely hear the words coming from the Goblin. His hands trembled in an emotion he hadn't felt in a long time. Hot rage, so unlike the cold anger he felt when he saw Goblins and the warm feeling she got when they died. He hadn't felt this way since he first started hunting them, since he had seen his sister… and had sworn to…

"How dare you." Goblin Slayer growled lowly, his voice like rust. "How dare you talk like us! Poison our words with your tongue!" He raged, his mind not even beginning to wonder how such a thing could be possible.

"I had wished no conflict. My orders were to observe you, nothing more. My brothers were merely guards and under my control." He nodded to the woman tied to the tree, still quietly crying and wishing for home. "The woman is safe and unharmed as is her father, take her with you as you were supposed to. I shall go home a failure. But," the Goblin then turned the bow on the woman, "if you take one more step forward I will kill her. There has been enough of this rivalry for one day, yes?"

And with those words Goblin Slayer was gone and something else took his place. "Rivalry?" This new man whispered as his grip on the club strengthened.

The world turned red as he roared and ran toward the Goblin as fast as possible. The Goblin panicked and swung between pointing his bow at the woman or him quickly, unsure where to shoot. Settling on keeping his promise he let his arrow fly and strike the woman in the back of the head, cutting off her crying and making her go limp.

The man in Goblin Slayer's armor didn't care. He didn't care when the Goblin nocked another arrow. He didn't care when the arrow flew at him and he distantly felt a pain in his gut. There was a Goblin in front of him.

A Goblin that needed its filthy head bashed in and its smart brains smeared all over his club.

The Goblin, realizing that there was no stopping this man now, threw down his weapon and turned to flee. He scrambled and managed to get a few feet before the man in the armor brought the club down on his head with a roar. "Naww, puhhlease." The Goblin tried to beg, blood already seeping out of his ears and mouth and falling to the grass.

"Keep making noise." The man in the armor rasped as he raised the club again. "I want to know when you die." He brought the club down. He brought it down again. And again. And again.

* * *

Goblin Slayer woke up sometime around sunset.

'My stomach hurts.' He thought and looked down to see an arrow sticking out of it. 'Right.' He sat up, ignoring the pain and looked around. The hill was littered with Goblin corpses and the woman was still tied to the tree, an arrow now in the back of her head. "Hmm." He hummed as he looked over to dead body of the hooded Goblin, the hood now resting against the grass as his head had been completely bashed away. The club rested next his body, snapped in half from over use Goblin Slayer assumed.

Satisfied that he was alone he took out a small health potion from his pocket. Grabbing the shaft of the arrow he ripped it out of his stomach and downed the potion as quickly as possible. Being able to drink and eat without having to take off his helmet as one of the first tricks he learned. The blood flowing out of the now open wound slowed and then stopped within moments.

Tucking the empty bottle away he stood and went about retrieving his equipment and double checking that all the Goblins were dead. It may have been a few hours but he had to be sure. He also cut down the woman and tried his best to lay her out which was difficult with rigor mortis.

After all that had been taken care of he finally went over to the body of the hooded Goblin. Kneeling down he pulled back the hood and took most of the now dry mess that was his head with it. There was almost nothing left but rotting brain, bits of skull, and dry blood.

Almost.

Finding something small, round, and white not far the mess Goblin Slayer reached to pick it up. The object was dry after sitting in the sun outside of the body for so long but it was still identifiable.

It was an eye.

But not a yellow goat like Goblin eye.

A human eye, colored a fading pink.

 **I like Goblin Slayer.**


	2. The Children

Goblin Slayer did not return to the Adventurers Guild for two days.

He stayed in the same village that the young woman had been taken from to investigate these strange Goblins and maybe find their nest. He had seen fit to carry the woman's body back with him and the family had wailed when they saw him carrying her and demanded to know what had happened. He told them the truth, that she had been killed by a Goblin during the fight. They seemed too grieved to question why the wound was a single arrow hole in the back of the head or why she showed no signs of being raped despite being held by the Goblins for half a day.

After sleeping at the local inn Goblin Slayer had spent the entirety of the next day searching the surrounding area for a Goblin nest. Hoping to find the source of the Goblins he faced yesterday instead he found nothing. He only came across two caves and both were empty and showed no signs of Goblin occupation anytime in recent history. When questioned the villagers said that the last incident with Goblins before yesterday had been three years ago, when a few started taking chickens from a farm. And they had been driven off by a group of young Adventurers paid for by the village scrounging what they could.

"I shall go home a failure." The… Goblin had said before Goblin Slayer had apparently flew into a rage and bashed its head into paste. Wherever that home was it obviously wasn't anywhere around here. And so with no other leads he left at dawn on his third day in the village.

He arrived back at the Adventurers Guild during the lunch rush, most of the tables near the bar area backed with parties. They discussed and planned whatever new adventure they were about to embark on or just enjoyed each other's company with the fine food and drink provided to them by the Guild. Goblin Slayer ignored this and made his way to the reception desk, where only a solitary Guild receptionist remained.

"Oh! Hello again Mister… Um…" The girl greeted as she tried to remember his name. He recognized her as the new girl that had given him the very odd quest a couple days ago.

"Goblin Slayer." He answered, coming to a stop in front of the desk where she had been having some tea and reading a book.

"Oh! Of course, I'm sorry!" She apologized as she began to clean up her station. "Are you here to give your report on your Quest?"

"Yes." He answered as she pulled out the Quest file and readied a pen. "I traveled to the outskirts of the village and discovered a trail left by the Goblins." He began to explain. "I followed them to a hill where I found the captured girl tied to a tree. I investigated and found the Goblins hidden in holes around the hill. I killed them all. The girl died in the fighting."

"Oh no!" The Guild Girl said as she looked up at him from the report she was writing. "Was there nothing you could do?!"

"…It was a stray arrow, struck her in the back of the head." He half lied. "Very unlucky." He decided there that he was not going to mention the talking Goblin. It would only raise questions that he couldn't answer fully. And all he had to go on was the single now dried and shriveled up pink human eye and the words the Goblin had spoken before it had died. "I returned her body to her village and spent the next day searching for the Goblin's nest but could not find it."

"Well thankfully the Quest was just to kill the six Goblins and not find their nest!" She said cheerfully as she finished writing the report. "So there would have been no need to trouble yourself with it if you had found one."

"Of course there would have been a need." He said, extending his hand to receive his payment. "To not destroy every Goblin nest you find would be foolish and dangerous."

"But, Goblins aren't _that_ dangerous." The Guild Girl said with a raised eyebrow. "They're as big as children and just as smart. Just this morning a party of new Porcelain level Adventurers took a Quest to clear out a nest!" She tried to explain.

"Have they returned?" Goblin Slayer asked, already knowing the answer.

"No." She answered.

"Then they're probably dead." He responded and she jolted at his words. "Where were they headed? I can finish what they started. Were there any women in the party?"

"D-dead?! But, but I thought…" The Guild Girl stammered dealing the realization that she may have unintentionally sent a party to their deaths.

"Quest." Goblin Slayer commanded simply. She blinked out of her panic and searched for the Quest file before handing it to him. He quickly scanned it, a small Goblin nest had been spotted near some farms to the North, and four Adventurers had been sent to deal with it. "I'll be back." He said as he handed the Quest details back.

He turned and walked away from the reception desk, ignoring the Guild Girl's calls to wait, and made for the front door. It opened before he could reach it and Lancer and the Sorceress stepped in, Lancer's armor covered in dried blood.

"Huh? Goblin Slayer?" Lancer said as he watched him approach. "Where have you been?"

"Yes," the Sorceress joined, "you rarely… take more than… a day to hunt… Goblins."

"Complications." Goblin Slayer answered plainly as he walked passed them.

"Oh, well good luck then." Lancer said as Goblin Slayer opened the door. "Goblin Hunting again?" He asked with a smile.

"Yes." He answered as he stepped out into the street. "…Hopefully it is just Goblins."

* * *

Once again Goblin Slayer found himself on the road, after a brief stop to buy a replacement Health Potion. The lands north of the city gave way to forests quickly and he found himself alone on a path winding through the trees. It didn't take him long to find the suspected cave that held the Goblin nest.

'Four distinct shoe prints.' He thought as he kneeled down at the cave entrance to inspect the ground. 'Three adults and one child? No, a Gnome or Halfling.' Raising to stand he took a fallen branch from the ground and a cloth from his pack. He also took out a bottle of oil and poured it onto the cloth before wrapping it around one end of the branch. Finally he took a match and struck it before bringing the flame to the oil soaked cloth. The fire caught quickly and he dropped and stamped out the match before walking into the cave, torch burning away the darkness.

The cave was silent except for the crackling of the fire and fall of his boots onto the stone. The air smelled of blood, shit, sweat, and sex so he knew that this was indeed a Goblin nest. He came upon the first totem quickly, a wooden pole decorated with bones and tattered scraps of fabric. Experience told him two things about this object, that it meant that there was a Shaman in this next and that there was hidden side passage nearby. Waving his torch to the side confirmed this, the cave split here with a narrow passageway going off and sloping down.

Goblin Slayer took some probing steps into the side passage, giving no indication that he was expecting to be attacked. After taking a dozen steps in he stopped. 'They should have attacked by now.' He thought. When confronted with unsuspecting prey Goblins would not hesitate to try a sneak attack. He wondered if he should risk throwing his torch to catch sight of any hiding Goblins to hit with a throwing knife but decided against it. 'The nest must be distracted with the beginner Adventurers.' He thought as he turned away. 'Perhaps they did manage to destroy most of the nest.'

And so Goblin Slayer continued on deeper into the cave, going farther and farther without seeing or hearing a single Goblin or any of the Adventurers sent to kill them. He passed more totems and found more empty side passages that all of his experience hunting Goblins told him should have been filled with the beasts. 'I do not like this,' he thought to himself as he pulled out his short sword and began to become on edge, 'this is just like last time. Nothing is going as it should.'

Eventually he came to the cave's main chamber and had his fears confirmed.

"…don't see why we can't just say we did." A feminine voice echoed out as he approached the opening to the main chamber, a light casting four large shadows against the walls.

"Because that'd be lying!" A high pitched voice responded as Goblin Slayer walked into the chamber unnoticed by the group of young Adventurers standing in a circle.

"…So?" The female Human with long brown hair with a bow and arrow and green hood over plain clothing answered, looking down at a male Gnome with short black hair in a tiny bright blue wizards outfit.

"You're all very loud." Goblin Slayer said, announcing his presence. The young Adventurers all jumped in fright and turned to face him, weapons drawn. In response he sheathed his own short sword.

"Who are you?!" A male human in plain brown clothing, short red hair, and with a longsword and kite shield demanded, taking up a defensive position in front of his companions.

"Goblin Slayer." He answered plainly as he continued towards them unworried. "Where are the Goblins?"

"We killed them." A male Elf in bright red clothing, long blonde hair, and a lute said with a smile. "It was a hard fought and glorious battle!"

"Really?" Goblin Slayer asked. "Then why is there no blood on his sword?" He questioned pointing to the Fighter's shining longsword. "And why is there no blood on any of your clothes?" They all stiffened at his question and shot glances at each other, silently trying to come up with an answer. "Now," he took another step towards them and spoke firmly as he looked at them, "where are the Goblins?"

"We… we," the Elf Bard started to say before he sighed, "don't know. All we found is…" He said as he stepped away with the rest of the group to reveal a single dead Goblin Shaman lying on the ground. There was a single dagger embedded in its shoulder.

Goblin Slayer stepped forward and crouched down to examine the corpse. "Hold this." He ordered the Ranger, thrusting out his torch to her. She took it with a grumble as he grabbed the dagger and pried it out of the body. 'Body is stiff, couldn't have been killed more than a few hours ago. The dagger is rough and uncared for.' He looked over the Shaman and found an empty dagger scabbard tied to its waist. 'Was this Goblin killed with its own dagger?' Curious he ran his gloved fingers over the clean edge of the blade and it came back with a faint green smudge. 'Poison, this is a Goblin dagger. Was it left here to die? The wound isn't very deep.' He looked at the pool of blood around the shoulder wound. 'Not a lot of blood, poison must have worked fast.' He turned to the Shaman's head and pried its closed eyes open.

They were yellow and goat like.

He breathed a sigh of relief he didn't know he was holding.

"Is this all you found?" He asked, rising to scan the chamber and dropping the dagger. There were signs of dried Goblin semen in a corner that indicated that this nest had a least one captured woman, now missing like everything else.

"Um, yeah." The Gnome Wizard answered. "Hey, who are you again?"

"Goblin Slayer." Goblin Slayer introduced himself again as he spied a throne made of bones tucked away in a corner. He knew this trick.

"Wait do you just kill Goblins?" The Ranger asked unbelieving. "What rank are you?"

"Steel." He answered as he kicked the throne apart and spied the door hidden behind it. "Bring the light." The party of young Adventurers moved to stand behind him as he opened the door and peered inside.

Nothing. No treasure, no captured women, and no Goblin Children.

Just lines and footprints in the dirt of what had been there not so long ago.

"…So," the Fighter said after a quiet moment, "is all this, you know, normal? Because I expected this Quest to have a lot more fighting."

"No." Goblin Slayer answered with a hard edge to his voice. His hand gripped around the hilt of his sword painfully. "No it is not." He turned away from the hidden storeroom and stomped back towards the entrance of the chamber, yanking his torch back from the Ranger.

"Hey!" She shouted as he stomped away. "Where are you going?!"

"To find the Goblins." He responded as they began to follow after him.

"This is our Quest!" The Fighter reminded as he rushed to walk with him. "You can't just join up halfway and get a piece of the reward!"

"I don't care about the reward." Goblin Slayer reassured as they left the chamber and started navigating the winding tunnels. "You can keep all of it, all I want is the Goblins."

"How are you going to find them?" The Gnome Wizard asked as he struggled to keep up, his short legs working twice as much as his taller companions.

"I'll look for tracks and follow them. There could be anywhere from 8 to 16 Goblins in this nest and they have at least one woman with them, maybe children." He explained. "I can catch them in no time."

"You don't look like a Ranger." The Ranger remarked looking him up and down. "You look like a Fighter."

"That's what it says on my Adventurers Guild file." He revealed. "But I don't care."

"Why?" The Fighter asked as he heaved his shield up as they began to climb a slope up.

"I joined the Guild because that's where everyone with Goblin infestations goes. It saves time having to wander the countryside asking villagers if they have seen any." Goblin Slayer answered as they crested the slope and continued on through the dark tunnels.

"…You are a very strange man, mister Goblin Slayer." The Elf Bard said as he strummed his lute. They continued the rest of the way in silence until they neared the entrance and Goblin Slayer stopped in his tracks to look down at the ground.

At his feet was a broken Shaman totem and some fresh Goblins tracks leading to it and back out the cave.

"What's wrong?" The Ranger asked as she came up to look over his shoulder.

"This wasn't broken when I came in." Goblin Slayer said as he drew his sword and reached down to pick up the totem. "We've been tricked. The Goblins are waiting to ambush us outside." He explained as he turned to them. "What are all of your skills and equipment?"

"Wait what?" The Fighter asked confused. "How do you know they're out there?"

"Because the totem was broken by a Goblin in the time it took me to find you all." Goblin Slayer explained. "There are fresh Goblin tracks leading to it and back outside, so they must be waiting out there where'd we'd least expect them."

"…Why'd the Goblin break the totem then?" The Elf Bard asked looking at it in his hand. "Breaking it would just let us know they were out there. They may be dumb but that seems really stupid when they could have just attacked us in here."

Goblin Slayer's eyes widened under his helmet and he looked down at the totem in his hands. 'There's one out there.' He thought as he turned back toward the direction of the cave entrance, still far enough to not see it yet. 'It knew someone… that I'd find notice it. It want me to know that it is out there. Why?' His mind spun, not used to having to ponder what tactics a Goblin could be trying to trick him outside of some simple ambushes and playing dead. 'Does it… want to talk to me?' He pictured the talking Goblin that he had bashed into paste and his knuckles turned white around the hilt of his sword.

"Your skills and equipment." Goblin Slayer said as he turned back to the party of young Adventurers and they all took a step back when they saw his eyes. "Now."

* * *

Goblin Slayer emerged from the cave into the bright and sunny forest path, the wind gently rustling the leaves. He stopped a couple feet from the entrance, his sword sheathed and totem in his hand. He raised it high above his head and then let it drop to the ground before lowering his arm again. For a moment there was absolute silence in the forest before a bush a dozen feet in front of him rustled for a brief moment.

A Goblin stepped out, its hands empty and raised in the air in a gesture of surrender. It had yellow goat like eyes and a red marking on its chest shaped like a clawed hand.

They stared at each other for a long moment before the Goblin lowered its arms and then turned back to disappear into its bush. There were a few more moments of silence before it seemed like the entirety of the forest in front of him began to shake with activity. Dozens of Goblins poured out and began to form up in front of him in a half circle, all of them had the regular yellow goat like eyes. They all carried a variety of weapons ranging from short swords to clubs, daggers, and bows and arrows. However the Goblins closest to him in the half circle gathering were all kneeling unarmed and bared the red claw marking on their chests. While their brothers behind them cried and shouted at him these kneeling Goblins were silent and looking up at him.

'58.' Goblin Slayer thought as he scanned over and counted the miniature horde in front of him. 'This may be… difficult.' Even if he retreated back into the cave to rejoin the party of young Adventurers and he joined with the Fighter to create a defensive wall the Ranger did not have anywhere near the required amount of arrows to probably kill more than half of them, assuming she made every shot. The Gnome Wizard would only be able to cast his Fireball spell a few times before he became useless and the Elf Bard could only do a few songs but at least he had a dagger.

Goblin Slayer's pondering was cut short however as a large Hobgoblin stepped out of the tree line. The Hobgoblin was covered head to toe in crude armor plating, each step sending it rattling together, and carried broad double sided axe that he had seen men carry with both hands in its right hand. It marched through the crowd of its lesser brethren and came to stop behind the kneeling unarmed Goblins and stared at him through its misshapen helmet for a moment in silence before it raised his free left hand. The horde of Goblins immediately went silent and Goblin Slayer could hear the rustling of the leaves again.

He could barely see the light pink human like eyes under the helmet.

"So," the Hobgoblin said after a moment, his voice heavy and craggy, "you're the famed Kin Killer." He took off his helmet with his free hand to reveal his human eyes fully and the large crooked smile on his face. "I'll be honest, I pictured you a bit taller."

Goblin Slayer said nothing as he continued to glare up at the Hobgoblin.

"…Silent type huh?" The Hobgoblin shrugged. "Well, that's fine. These retards never shut up so it'll be a welcome change." He gestured to the crowd of Goblins around him. "Took Father and Big Brother ages to figure out how to train them right."

As the Hobgoblin was speaking one of the Goblins kneeling with the red claw marking on its chest crept forward toward Goblin Slayer. It reached out to touch his leg while gazing up at him with a look that could be described as reverence. With a disgusted roar Goblin Slayer kicked the Goblin away hard, sending it flying into the air and crashing back down. The Hobgoblin gave a loud laugh as it picked itself up and bowed low to Goblin Slayer in apology.

"They got a shrine to you." The Hobgoblin said as the Goblin rejoined the half circle in front of him. Goblin Slayer's hands started to shake in anger. "Just some old armor in a pile with some candles, but they keep it really clean. Father has no idea why they do it, but he susp-"

"Why." Goblin Slayer growled out. "Are. You. Here." He demanded.

"…My Father is dying." The Hobgoblin said seriously after a moment. "He wishes to see you, Kin Killer, before he departs for whatever world awaits our kind."

"I don't know your Father." Goblin Slayer snarled, close to snapping at having to have a conversation with another talking Goblin. "Why does he want to see me? So I can kill him?"

"You will watch what you say!" The Hobgoblin snarled as his grip tightened around his axe. "You may have slain my youngest brother but my Father will not be so easily beaten, even in his weakened state." He took a threatening step forward and glared down at Goblin Slayer. "And I would never allow you to reach him with such intentions. And my siblings or our hundreds of lesser brethren won't either."

"…Hundreds?" Goblin Slayer asked, unbelieving of what he just heard. "Where? How?"

"Come with us and you'll see." The Hobgoblin refused to answer. "My Father speaks highly of your abilities as a warrior but I doubt you can take all of us." There was a murmur through the horde of Goblins that was quickly quieted.

"How does your Father know about me? I've slain every Goblin I've ever encountered, including the children." The Hobgoblin sneered at that. "He is a Goblin, isn't he?"

"Yes," the Hobgoblin answered, "and he knows of you because you saved him." He reached under his chest plate and pulled something out which he tossed to Goblin Slayer who caught it easily.

Goblin Slayer looked down at it and his heart nearly stopped.

It was a small, broken, Porcelain ID tag with the most of the same information as the one he wore around his neck.

"About a year ago you went to clear out a nest, it was probably your last as a Porcelain ranked Adventurer." The Hobgoblin started to explain, as if Goblin Slayer didn't already know this. "During it you fought a Hobgoblin who nearly killed you. During the fight you lost your Adventurer Tag." He pointed to the tag in Goblin Slayer's hands, his fingers tracing over his name on it. "It would be picked up by a young woman, kidnapped by the Goblins to breed with. My dear old, well young, Grandmother."

"Impossible!" Goblin Slayer yelled. "The Church takes in and takes care of the women captured by Goblins! They kill the unborn children!"

"Unless the woman is a heathen." The Hobgoblin revealed with a nasty smile. "One whose Father refused to hand her over to the Church. One who gave birth not two days after being saved by you to a quiet little Goblin baby with bright pink eyes just like her." His smile grew larger as he gestured to his own pink Human eyes. "A baby she named after the man that had saved her and the other captured women single handedly." Goblin Slayer started to breathe heavily and his fist clenched around the Porcelain Tag.

"A little Goblin baby named… Alexander."

With a scream of rage Goblin Slayer was gone and the man in his armor dropped the Porcelain Tag to grab his short sword. Drawing it he leaped over the kneeling Goblins and lunged for the Hobgoblin in a blind rage.

* * *

"I'm starting to think that Goblin guy is just messing with us." The Fighter said as their party continued to wait for Goblin Slayer to return from "scouting" the Goblins. "He's probably half way back to the Adventurer's Guild to cash in on this Quest."

"What reward? We didn't kill any Goblins!" The Gnome Wizard reminded. "This whole thing has been a giant waste of time!"

"Yeah, a great first adventure." The Ranger muttered bitterly, once again holding Goblin Slayer's torch. "Why'd we even listen to him anyway?"

"He's a Steel ranked Adventurer." The Elf Bard answered, still strumming his lute idly. "He's probably been doing this for a few years now."

"Steel is only two ranks above us. It's not that big a deal." The Ranger argued.

"And did you see his equipment?" The Fighter continued, swinging his sword idly. "You'd think that Steel ranked missions would give a better pay out."

"From what I understand," a low and graven voice said behind them, "the Adventurer's Guild doesn't pay much for getting rid of us." They all wheeled around to face the emerging figure coming out of the darkness. A Goblin Shaman walked into their light, its hands empty and facing them, with a deep cut on its shoulder caked with dried blood.

It was the dead Goblin Shaman they had found less than an hour ago, now walking and talking to them.

"Wh-what?!" The Gnome Wizard stammered as they all gawked at the beast walking to them.

"I'm sorry you were involved in this." The Shaman apologized as the air around his hands began to shimmer and shine, his yellow goat like eyes morphing into light pink Human ones. "But all we need is Kin Killer, all you'll do is slow us down."

The Shaman flung the swirling energy in his left hand towards the Fighter who was slow to raise his shield. The energy struck his exposed head and rip and tore it to shreds as it kept going to the cave ceiling. Blood showered out of destroyed stump of a neck and his body collapsed to the ground. With his right hand he tossed the swirling energy down to the Gnome Wizard, who was half way through the incantation for a Fire Arrow. The energy tore apart the small creature's upper half, leaving nothing more than the bloody scraps of its wizard hat and cloak.

The Ranger dropped her torch and reached for an arrow as the Shaman pulled out the dagger that had once been deep in its own shoulder. It rushed forward and ducked low as the Ranger nocked her arrow, driving the blade into her stomach. "The poison may have allowed me to fake death so well it fooled the Kin Killer. But," he twisted the blade and the Ranger dropped her bow, "your death will unfortunately be all too real." The Ranger began to cough up blood. "A shame, untouched women are hard to come by. My Little Brother has been seeking a wife for weeks."

The Elf Bard turned and fled for the cave entrance, trusting his elven sight to navigate. He heard the Ranger's body fall to the ground but not the Shaman come chasing after him.

However when he left the cave he found a sight that made the Shaman leave his mind entirely.

A miniature horde of Goblins surrounded Goblin Slayer in a wide ring as he and a Hobgoblin covered in crude plate armor and wielding a broad double sided battle axe fought in the center. The Goblins screamed and cheered every time the Hobgoblin brought a fist down on Goblin Slayer's shield or nearly cleaved him in half with his axe. They also booed and jeered every time that Goblin Slayer delivered a cut or stab to skin exposed by the loose armor plating.

The only ones not cheering or booing were a number of quiet Goblins with red claw markings on their chests. They were closest to the fighting and were seemingly holding the horde of their brothers back.

"Come on Kin Killer! Is that all you got?!" The Hobgoblin challenged as he swiped at Goblin Slayer who ducked under the fist and stabbed upward. His short sword pierced the underside of the Hobgoblins right arm and Goblin Slayer roughly pushed it down the rest of the arm. "RAAGH!" Both the Hobgoblin and Goblin Slayer roared as the blood began to pour out of the wound.

"What the fuck?" The Elf Bard asked as he watched the scene.

His question was answered by a couple of Goblins turning away from the fight to look at him. With devilish grins they raised their weapons and rushed towards him. Once again the Elf Bard ran for his life, this time chased by two mad Goblins hollering and cheering as they chased him.

But he did manage one last glance back before he disappeared into the forest in flight.

The Shaman had emerged from the cave, carrying the Fighter's sword, shield, and the Ranger's bow and quiver full of arrows. The Hobgoblin had dropped his axe to cradle his bleeding arm and Goblin Slayer held his short sword high to deliver a killing blow by plunging his sword into the green giant's neck.

The Shaman cried out, dropping all of his stolen equipment, and raised his hands high in the air. With a wave of his arms and some chanted words Goblin Slayer's movements slowed until he was frozen in place, his body visibly twitching trying to move or in rage. Rising back onto his feet the Hobgoblin pulled off Goblin Slayer's helmet and brought his left fist down on his head again and again.

As the Elf Bard disappeared into the trees chased by two Goblins he saw the spells effect leave Goblin Slayer and him crumble to the ground unconscious. As the silent Goblins moved to tend to him the Hobgoblin held Goblin Slayer's helmet high in the air and the miniature horde around him cheered in triumph.


	3. Escape from the Goblins

On the ranch the Girl watched the setting sun with a deep frown. She sat on the porch of her Uncle's farm house and toyed with her knitting needles and yarn.

It had been four days since Alexander had left to go on a usual Goblin Slaying Quest.

He had been gone for long periods before but that had always been with some warning, a quick message sent back to the ranch that the Goblin nest he sought was at the edge of the Kingdom. But there had been no message this time.

'I hope he's okay.' She worried. 'He knows more about Goblins than anybody else but…' She set her knitting needles and yarn aside, not getting anywhere on the scarf she had planned to make for the coming winter. 'He says that there are Goblins he's only heard about. Goblin Champions or Lords or something.' She leaned back in her chair, the old thing creaking as she did so. 'How can you fight something you've only heard about and nobody else has ever seen?'

"Dinner!" Her Uncle called from inside the house and she rose, gathering up her knitting material.

'I hope he's okay.' She thought again. 'I'll ask about him when I make a delivery to the Guild tomorrow, they'll know what he's doing.'

* * *

The Elf Bard grimaced as one of the Goblins that had chased him passed under his hiding spot again.

'Damn it, why aren't they giving up?' He thought as the Goblin met up with his companion in a clearing nearby. The two Goblins argued in their filthy language before setting off in different directions again still determined to find him. 'Damn.' The Elf Bard mentally cursed as he leaned back on the high tree branch he had climbed up to. When he had left his village in search of adventure he never expected to be back sitting and hiding in tree branches within a week. 'I thank you Old Wood for sheltering this poor Wood Elf.' He thought as he slung his lute over his shoulder and pulled out his dagger and looked at it. 'But I must take my leave of you.' Standing up and naturally balancing on the tree branch, even with his shoes that were made for style not function, he looked at the farthest Goblin that was moving away from him.

He began to lowly hum a few dark elven words, the air getting heavier as he did so. The Goblin he was staring at stopped in place and craned his head up to listen to something that only he could hear. As the Elf Bard continued to hum the Goblin got more and more agitated until finally he screamed out, dropped his sword, and clutched his ears to his head. The Goblin ran deeper into the forest, leaving his brother to stand under the Elf Bard's tree confused at what had gotten into him.

'Close enough.' The Elf Bard thought as he clutched his dagger in both hands and jumped down from his branch. His shadow fell over the Goblin under him and the creature managed to look up in time to see the Elf in bright red clothing fall out of the tree and his shining dagger coming straight for his face. The Goblin raised its dagger to deflect the blade and managed to succeed, driving the blade away from splitting his nose and instead tearing open his right cheek. "Fuck!" The Elf Bard cursed as he tried to pull the dagger back to try and finish the Goblin off only to have to jump back when the creature made to stab him instead.

"Kash! Rurr!" The Goblin growled out as his blood fell to the grass.

"Come on." The Elf Bard said as he nervously stood his ground. When he went on this Quest he hadn't expected to be fighting any of the Goblins, instead he had planned to stay in the back of the group and sing songs to bolster his Party's morale.

But then again he also hadn't expected to encounter a horde of over 50 Goblins and Goblins that could talk.

The Goblin rushed forward and the Elf Bard dodged out of the way of its charge. He tried to stab it in the back but only managed to deliver a light cut as it narrowly moved out of the way.

"Fuck!" He cursed again as the other Goblin, over his panic attack, stumbled upon the scene and raced for his dropped sword. Jumping to the side the Elf Bard repositioned himself until both Goblins were lined up perfectly and he thrust his hand out. With a commanding eleven word a clap of thunder rolled through the forest and an invisible force raced out from his palm. The Goblins, being directly in its path, were flung off their feet and sent flying through the air until they collided with a mighty tree.

Rushing over the Elf Bard quickly brought his dagger down on the throat of the Goblin with the sword, the other wounded struggling to stand with its bleeding wounds. Blood flowed out around the dagger and the Elf Bard could not pull it free as the Goblin grasped at his arm. Leaving his dagger he lunged for the Goblin's sword and swung around just in time to clumsily block the wounded Goblin's back attack. He didn't want to think would happen if he lost his lute.

"Grah!" The Goblin cried, spitting blood in the Elf Bard's face.

"Oh piss off already!" The Elf Bard cried and promptly brought his right foot up to kick the Goblin in the balls.

"YEEEEE!" The Goblin screamed as it dropped his dagger, fell to the ground, and clutched his bruised testicles. The Elf Bard wasted no time in plunging the sword into its back.

"Momma," the Elf Bard breathed as he stood there leaning against the sword imbedded into the filthy creature, "I'm sorry. I know I swore I'd stop cursing and come back a refined Elf." He looked down at his fine red suit, created by his Father who was the village tailor. "Good thing Poppa made this red." He commented as he looked at all the blood. With the fight over the adrenaline left his body and he nearly tripped as he walked over to pry his dagger out of the throat of the Goblin.

'Oh Gods.' He thought as he looked up at the orange sky, only now noticing that the sun was setting. '…What do I do? My party is dead. I've used up my two spells today. And the only friendly person in this Goblin infested forest is probably being roasted and eaten right now.'

"I'm sorry you were involved in this. But all we need is Kin Killer, all you'll do is slow us down." The words of the Goblin Shaman came back to him then. "Come on Kin Killer! Is that all you got?!" Followed by the challenge from what seemed like a Hobgoblin in armor.

"What is going on?" The Elf Bard questioned out loud. "How are there talking Goblins? How are they so… smart?" The face of the Shaman came back to him. "What is with their eyes?"

The forest offered no answer, just swaying leaves in the wind.

'Goblin Slayer is alive.' He thought to himself. 'Or I guess Kin Killer to these Goblins. But they want him for something. Can I go get help?' He wondered to himself as his hand reached up to grab the Porcelain Tag around his neck, marking him as a member of the Adventurer's Guild. 'The Guild will still be open by the time I get there but everybody will probably be drinking or eating dinner. We wouldn't be able to get back here until morning… assuming anybody cares to help me.'

"I… I have to save him." The Elf Bard admitted to no one. 'Whatever they want him for it can't be good and we could lose them in the time it takes to get back here.' He reasoned as he moved away from the dead Goblins. "Oh Guardian of this Forest," he said as he started to walk deeper into the forest, "please watch over this stupid Wood Elf and help keep him hidden from the foul Goblin's sight."

* * *

Goblin Slayer woke up to the unusual sensation of something cold and damp being applied to his pounding forehead. He did not open his eyes when he woke but instead remained completely still and listened to what was happening around him.

There were shuffling footsteps all around him but no spoken words or what passed for a language among the Goblins. He could hear the soft sloshing of water and the clang of plate or bowls being set down. The fluttering of a large fabric all around him that indicated that he was in a tent. There was a clanking sound of metal being moved around. Distantly he could hear the sounds of Goblins crying out about something or other and the crackle of a large bon fire.

Moving onto touch Goblin Slayer could feel that he had been stripped of his armor and boots and had left in his plain clothes barefoot. The air was cool inside this tent so he could guess that he had been unconscious long enough for it to become night. He could also feel ropes tying his hands behind his back and some even tying his feet together. They did not want him going anywhere.

The wet cloth on his forehead was lifted and he chose this moment to open his eyes.

One of the silent Goblins with a red claw marking on its chest stared down at him, holding the wet clothe in its claw. Goblin Slayer's eyes flicked around the tent he was in and found himself surrounded by these strange Goblins. There was on carrying a bowl of fruit, another holding a jug of what he presumed was water, three were in the corner cleaning his armor, and finally four more were merely standing off to the side staring at him.

"Don't." He hissed as the Goblin with the wash cloth moved to soak it in its bucket again. "Touch. Me." The Goblin got the message and bowed to him before it picked up the bucket and carried it outside. "Stop. Touching. My. Armor." He commanded as he pulled himself into a sitting position to glare at the Goblins cleaning it. They also stopped what they were doing at once and turned to stare at him. "Get. Out." He growled out.

This command they did not obey.

"Is he awake?" An unfamiliar voice asked outside of the tent and in stepped a Shaman with Human pink eyes. "Ah! You are!" He smiled as he crouched down in front of him. "My Little Brother did a number on you, you've been out for hours. Of course you did the same to him, he won't be using his right arm for a while."

"…You're supposed to be dead." Goblin Slayer said after a moment, recognizing the Goblin Shaman in front of him as the dead one that the party of young Adventurers had discovered.

"I was pretending." The Shaman answered with a grin. "Surely you've seen that trick?" He pointed to the bandage on his shoulder. "Although we did have to take it pretty far, had to be sure that it would fool you."

"Your eyes were normal. Was it magic, to trick me?" Goblin Slayer asked and the Shaman's smile was all the answer he needed. "…Why are you here?" He asked, wanting this beast out of his face so he could begin planning his escape.

"I came to speak to the man my Father was named after," Goblin Slayer twitched angrily at that reminder, "and who he says is one of the greatest warriors our kind has ever faced."

"I'm not a warrior." Goblin Slayer responded fiercely. "A warrior goes to conqueror and take from their enemies. I want nothing you have. A warrior fights for honor and status among their peers. My rank is nothing and the other Adventurers don't care for me. A warrior wants a world where there are always battles to fight. I want a world where there are no Goblins and I am not needed." He glared at the Shaman. "I am not a warrior. I am an exterminator."

"…And here my Little Brother told me that you were the quiet type." The Shaman said after a moment. "You always this chatty or do we bring something out of you? But we should be getting to dinner, the stew should be almost ready." He rose and turned to the tent opening before stopping and turning back around. "But before we do… I have a question." His face lost the smile and got serious as he looked down at the tied up man before him.

"What made you become "Goblin Slayer" Alexander?" He asked and Goblin Slayer felt the now familiar rage come bubbling back up. However this time he didn't fly into a rage like the previous times and settled on the harshest glare he could give. It was enough to make the Shaman take a nervous gulp before he continued. "Father does not know why and I suspect that's one of the questions he'll ask you. Were you the victim of a Goblin raid? Did someone close to you get killed or bred with?"

"…I'm going to kill all of you." Goblin Slayer stated as he continued to glare at the Shaman. "Until the day I die or your filthy species has been wiped out."

One by one the Goblins with the red claw marking all bowed their heads and kneeled.

"Well, alright then." The Shaman coughed as he rubbed his head. "You more or less confirmed my suspicion so in the interest of fairness I'll let you ask a question. Just don't get to personal now." He warned with a smile, but the sweat on his forehead betrayed his desire to be out of this tent and away from Goblin Slayer.

"…Your brother said that there are hundreds of you. How?" Goblin Slayer asked after a moment of thought. "The average Human woman can be impregnated by a Goblin and give birth 24 to 48 hours later. Dwarves in 28 to 56 hours. Elves in 38 to 64 hours. Gnomes and Halflings in 9 to 13 hours." He explained. "Regardless of species the average woman will likely give birth 3 to 4 times before dying due to either the toll of repeated births in such a short amount of time or the rough handling of the Goblins. This drops to 1 to 2 times if there is a ratio greater than 5 Goblins to every woman."

"We're not animals." The Shaman commented. "Well… not my family at least. We take care of the women and don't force them to give birth more than twice a week. We haven't had any of them die in months." He smiled. "My wife has given me many children over the past two months, unfortunately only one batch has given me proper sons. The rest…" He gestured outside the tent to where the miniature horde of Goblins no doubt waited.

"Batch?" Goblin Slayer said confused. "Women can only give birth to a single Goblin at a time." The Shaman grinned evilly and knelt back down to get eye level.

"Tell me, what do you know about heathen fertility cults?" The Shaman asked as Goblin Slayer began to feel a pit develop in his stomach.

* * *

'I'm fucking dead.' The Elf Bard thought as he once again sat in a tree and looked at the Goblin camp before him.

The camp was about three large bonfires scattered across a large clearing that the Goblins were dancing and singing around. Or maybe they were just jumping around and yelling at each other, it was hard to tell. However off to the side near the tree line was three tents of plain white fabric in a row facing towards the bonfires with only a few Goblins milling around, some even appearing to stand guard.

These few separate Goblins however didn't do anything to ease his comfort about the small horde of over 45 Goblins dancing around in front of him.

His worries were interrupted when out of the closest tent the Goblin Shaman that had killed his party members walked out followed by what he assumed was Goblin Slayer. His steps were small and the Elf Bard could see that on top of his rope bindings restraining his arms they had tied his feet together. Slowly Goblin Slayer was guided to the middle tent by the Goblin Shaman and a small following of 8 Goblins without weapons. Goblin Slayer walked in and the Shaman shooed away his following of Goblins before going in after him.

'Okay, they're keeping him in the closest tent and are all in the middle one.' The Elf Bard thought as he dropped down from his tree branch and moved to crouch behind a bush. 'Let's find out what's in the farthest tent.' Moving nimbly through the trees The Elf Bard never spent more than a moment in the open, only long enough to jump behind the next tree or bush. Slowly he edged closer and closer to the clearing until he crawled up behind the farthest tent.

Listening he couldn't hear anything inside the tent so he laid down on the ground and dug a small hole under the tent fabric with his dagger. Peering through the hole he saw no Goblins inside and that the opening flap was closed. Working quickly and quietly he dug a larger hole until it was big enough for him to squeeze through, leaving his lute behind.

'Yeah, mud isn't going to ruin my clothes anymore then the blood is.' The Elf Bard thought as he crouched down in the tent and began to look around. There was two bedrolls on opposite sides of the tent, a pile of weapons and equipment in a corner that he recognized as his party members, and a few packs in another corner. 'Rather minimal living.' He thought as he moved to the pile of equipment.

'Oh Gods, this has all been one day.' He realized as he looked at the equipment of his dead teammates. 'I… I can't take their stuff back to their families. I don't even know where they came from.' With a deep sigh he gathered up the short sword and small shield that belonged to Goblin Slayer and pushed them out through the hastily dug hole. Moving over to the pile of packs he opened and rummaged around them.

The first few contained nothing but food stuffs but then he came across one holding Health and Stamina Potions, vials of oil, matches, cloth, rope, and a coin pouch. 'This must be Goblin Slayer's.' The Elf Bard thought, neither he nor his party members had thought to buy Health Potions before the adventure. Not that they would have done them any good, that Shaman's spells had killed the Fighter and Gnome Wizard instantly. He took Goblin Slayer's pack and pushed it through the hole as well.

But it was the last pack that held his interest the longest.

Picking it up he heard the familiar sound of coins and opening it confirmed this. But opening it and picking up a coin revealed one that he had never seen before.

It was a gold coin, a bit dirty, that bared the visage of a Dwarven king on one side and a pick and axe on the other side. Fairly standard for a Dwarven currency but it was the lettering around the edges of the coin that interested him. He knew both Modern and Classic Dwarven, to better convey old Dwarven legends and songs, and he could see elements of those languages in the letters but it was still unreadable to him.

'Why would Goblins have a bag filled with Dwarven gold coins? …Why would they have a bag filled with money in the first place?' He wondered as he tossed the bag through the hole and crawled after it. 'All this sneaking and stealing, I should have registered as a Rogue.' Gathering up his lute, Goblin Slayer's sword, shield, pack, and the Goblin's gold bag the Elf Bard moved to the middle tent.

"It's childish to simply glare at your food instead of eating it." A deep voice he recognized as the Hobgoblin's. There was silence in response. "You'll have to eat eventually, we're in for long trip back."

'I got to get the talking Goblins away from him.' The Elf Bard thought. 'I won't stand a chance against either of them.' Thinking quickly he set down everything that he was carrying and opened Goblin Slayer's bag, pulling out a vial of oil and the matches. Going back to the tent with the hole he poured the vial of oil at a corner of the tent a lit it on fire with a match. He quickly went back to the middle tent and put everything back on and drew his dagger, ready to act.

Soon a Goblin guarding the tents let out a cry when it smelled the smoke and soon all of the Goblins in the tent area were running to watch the tent go up in flames. "What the fuck is going on?!" The Hobgoblin screamed as he stormed out of the tent. "If one of you bastards started this we'll have you skinned!" The Shaman continued, following the larger one.

'Now!' The Elf Bard thought as he gripped the tent fabric and stabbed his dagger through it. Pulling it down quickly he tore open his own entrance in the back and walked in to find Goblin Slayer sat on the ground in front of a fire with a cook pot filled with stew and a full bowl. He looked rather surprised to see him.

"We have to be quick!" He whispered harshly as he cut Goblin Slayer's bonds.

"I need my armor." Was his only reply, taking his short sword on the left side of his hip, shield on his left arm, and tying his bag to the back of his waist.

"There's no time!" The Elf Bard argued. "We got to go!" Goblin Slayer was about to answer only for the heavy foot falls of the Hobgoblin to begin returning to the tent. We no other words both of them turned and fled through the tear in the tent, fleeing into the forest.

Soon a cry went out through the Goblin camp and the horde followed them into the trees.

* * *

With their longer legs and head start Goblin Slayer and the Elf Bard managed to maintain a sizeable distance from the horde of Goblins. They both managed to duck and weave around tree and bushes and jump over rocks and logs with nimble movements. Goblin Slayer due to his fitness and year as an Adventurer and the Elf Bard due to his heritage and youth as a Wood Elf.

"We need to find a spot to fight." Goblin Slayer said as he jumped over a log, the night grass cool on his bare feet.

"Are you insane?! We can't fight them all!" The Elf Bard fired back, ducking under a low hanging branch. "And you're Human! You can't see in the dark!"

"I have plenty of experience fighting in the dark. And we don't need to kill all of them, I just need their blood." Goblin Slayer explained and got a confused look in exchange. "Goblins have a good sense of smell, they'll be able to track me down unless I mask my scent to match theirs. You are covered in blood, it's what allowed you sneak up on their camp so easily."

"Y-yeah, I knew that." The Elf Bard lied. "I used up all my spells for the day so…"

"You are a Bard correct?" Goblin Slayer asked rhetorically. "Play a song."

Coming to a clearing Goblin Slayer drew his short sword in his right hand while the Elf Bard ran to a nearby tree and quickly climbed it. Pulling his lute off his back he checked to make sure that it was in tune.

"Got a request?" The Elf Bard asked nervously as he did his best to hide his body behind some leaves.

"No." Goblin Slayer answered. 'Without my armor I can't wait for them to make attacks and react. I have to get aggressive.' The bushes that they had previously jumped through began to rustle and soon the clearing was filled with a fast tune from the Elf Bard.

"Oh, come near all brave young lads!" The Elf Bard began to sing and Goblin Slayer felt himself become lighter and his muscles begin to lose their ache after the run.

"Kash!" A Goblin cried as it burst out of the bush, wielding a sword. Goblin Slayer rushed forward and blocked the Goblin's sword with his own before driving the rim of his shield into the Goblin's eyes with a left punch. The beast cried out and Goblin Slayer quickly drew his sword back to thrust it into the Goblin's belly. "GRAHH!" The Goblin puked blood and dropped his sword.

"1." Goblin Slayer said as he lowered the Goblin and put his bare foot against its stomach to pry his sword free.

"Hear the song of the Elf warrior, green and true!" The Elf Bard continued as two more Goblins burst into the scene, one with a mace and the other a dagger.

Picking up the fallen Goblin's sword Goblin Slayer wielded both to swing and cut the leg of the mace Goblin and stab the foot of the dagger Goblin, with his sword. As the Goblin with the dagger cried out in pain and the other fell down to clutch his leg Goblin Slayer swung his current sword to cut their throats quickly.

"3." He said as he picked up the mace with his right hand and readied for the next attack.

"He was swift and quick, a blur of gold hair and shiny blade!" The Elf Bard sang as five Goblins pounced in, this time split into two groups on opposite sides of Goblin Slayer.

"Tagh furhj!" A Goblin with a spear cried out as he rushed to skewer Goblin Slayer. On the opposite side two Goblins each with sickles ran to entrap him.

Goblin Slayer swung around to fling his sword like a throwing knife and sent it sailing into the skull of one of the two Goblins with sickles. Turning back he dodged the thrust of the spear wielding Goblin and grabbed the weapon with his now free left hand. Pulling the weapon forward the Goblin holding it tumbled forward far enough that he could bash his brains in with a solid strike from the mace in his right hand. Swinging the spear around he whacked the remaining sickle Goblin in the head with its end. As the Goblin saw stars he further the problem by bringing his mace down to crack its skull.

"6." Goblin Slayer continued to count as he sighted on one of the remaining Goblins, who stood there with a dagger watching this with shaking legs and a clear desire to flee. Goblin Slayer threw the spear in his left hand like a javelin, his inexperience and the weight of the shield on his left arm throwing off his aim. Instead of hitting the Goblin center mass it instead struck the inside of the Goblin's left thigh. His cries nearly masked the footsteps of the other remaining Goblin as it ran to chop Goblin Slayer in the back. Dodging to the side he narrowly avoided the axe this Goblin held and tackled him before he could turn to attack Goblin Slayer again. Pinning the Goblin's arms with his legs Goblin Slayer straddled the Goblin, pried the axe from his claws, and drove it into his skull. "7."

"He traveled the woods, shaded by-" The Elf Bard stopped singing when the cries of the Goblin with the spear in his thigh was stopped with a crunch.

"8." A deep voice said and Goblin Slayer looked up to see the Hobgoblin standing on the corpse of the Goblin, his right foot in the crushed gore that was the Goblin's skull. He had managed to put his crude plate armor on with only one arm, his right bandaged and in a sling after their fight hours ago.

"…Your brother did the same thing." Goblin Slayer said as he stood and pulled the axe out of the Goblin's skull with his right hand. "Before I bashed his head into a pulp."

"Give up Kin Killer, you won't survive a hit from my axe without your armor." The Hobgoblin warned as he hefted the great weapon in his left hand.

"If you can even hit me with your non dominant hand." Goblin Slayer replied as he gestured to the Hobgoblin's right arm in the sling. As the Hobgoblin growled Goblin Slayer reach behind his back to rummage around in his pack until he blindly found the familiar shapes of a vial of oil and his matches. Turning he threw these objects into the tree where the Elf Bard hid and hoping that the Elf had caught them turned back in time to see the Hobgoblin charge him.

"RAHHH!" The Hobgoblin shouted as he rushed forward, broad axe raised high. Goblin Slayer barely jumped to the side in time as the axe split the ground where he previously stood. With this opening he raised his own smaller axe and moved to bury it in the exposed skin in between the plate armor. Seeing this coming the Hobgoblin kicked his leg out and forced Goblin Slayer to jump back to avoid being kicked in the gut. The Hobgoblin wretched his axe out of the ground and began to slowly walk towards Goblin Slayer.

"I don't see why Father wants to meet you so badly. You're nothing more than a cowardly fighter who uses whatever advantage you can get!" He shouted as he lunged forward and Goblin Slayer used this to jump and run away to stand underneath the tree the Elf Bard was hiding in. Looking up he saw the Elf holding the open vial of oil in one hand and the matches in another.

'Probably only get one chance at this.' Goblin Slayer thought as the Hobgoblin chased after him and he loosened his shield. As the Hobgoblin neared with his axe raised Goblin Slayer took his shield and threw it at his wounded arm. The small metal disk impacted and the Hobgoblin cried out and slowed in his chase as Goblin Slayer jumped back one final time.

"Why you little!" The Hobgoblin shouted. "I am going to-" He stopped talking as something cool and wet started to fall on his helmet and pour down over his eye slits. When it stopped he looked up to see the Elf Bard sitting above him with a lit match in his hand.

"Burn in hell." The Elf Bard said as he dropped the match and it landed on the oil poured over the Hobgoblin.

"AHHH!" The oil caught quickly and soon the fire had spread over the Hobgoblins shoulder armor. The metal heating quickly the Hobgoblin dropped his axe and with his working left hand quickly started to rip off his armor. "YOU PIECES OF SHI-" He screamed as he pulled off his helmet and saw Goblin Slayer leap into the air in front of him, his axe raised high.

The Hobgoblin didn't manage another word before Goblin Slayer buried his axe into the Hob's skull, splitting his left pink Human eye in half.

"…9." Goblin Slayer breathed as he stepped away from the burning corpse of the Hobgoblin. He moved quickly to pry his short sword out of the foot of the dead Goblin and put his shield back on his left arm.

"We good?" The Elf Bard asked as he hopped down from his tree branch to find Goblin Slayer smearing blood all over his clothes. The sounds of the other Goblins were far off but much to close for his liking.

"…Yes, I am happy with this." Goblin Slayer answered as he finished smearing blood on himself and looked around. "We still have a lot of running to do. Let's go." With that they took off deeper into the forest, this time not pursued by the now smaller Goblin horde.

However as they made their way to cross a stream a cry traveled throughout the entire forest and made them stop to look back, if only momentarily.

It was the sound of the Shaman finding the charred corpse of his Little Brother.

 **I hope I managed to make the Elf Bard seem useful enough to be a good companion for Goblin Slayer. If only for this adventure.**


	4. Return and Goodbyes

The air smelled of smoke and blood.

Goblin Slayer walked the streets of the burning city, the dirt and cobblestone slick with blood and bodies. His armor and drawn sword were clean of blood and he desperately stalked between the flaming buildings to fix that. But no matter where he went he found only bodies, in the alleyways, the parks, and hanging outside of the windows and doors of every business.

All he found were the bodies of men, every woman seemingly taken.

The Adventurers Guild was burned to the ground, only a blackened husk with some charred skeletons inside. As Goblin Slayer kneeled down to pick up the skull of what he was sure was Lancer, judging by the burned armor he found the bones in, a cruel laugh came from behind him. Turning to face it he found a Goblin standing in the street, covered in blood and clutching the severed head of child. With demented glee the Goblin tossed the child's head at Goblin Slayer and ran when he blocked the severed body part and gave chase.

No matter how hard he ran Goblin Slayer could not catch the blood soaked Goblin as it danced through the streets. He would laugh as Goblin Slayer got close enough to swing his sword only to jump farther than any Goblin should have been able to. The Goblin would jeer as Goblin Slayer picked up anything he could to throw at the Goblin to try and trip him up. Soon the Goblin got farther and farther away until he was gone, disappeared down an alleyway.

Bursting onto the street that the Goblin had vanished on Goblin Slayer found a pit erupting in the middle of the road. With no thought of his safety he plunged into the dark pit, somehow managing to navigate the dark tunnels without any light. His foot falls and ragged breathing echoed through the cavern as he descended lower and lower into the Earth, the air becoming heavier and fouler. Soon he neared the entrance to a chamber filled with dancing lights and terribly familiar sounds.

Goblin Slayer had found where all of the city's women had been taken.

The chamber he had barreled into was vast, large enough to hold the hundreds of frantic Goblins and the women that they were raping around massive bonfires. Goblin Slayer could hardly see the women from behind the crowds of Goblins that had encircled each of them, either waiting their turn or masturbating at the sight of them being violated. The cheers of the Goblins were raised with every cry from the women, shouting their joy at the plunder that the city above had offered them. Roaring with rage Goblin Slayer rushed to the nearest crowd of Goblins before a sound stopped him.

It was the cries and screams of a woman, clear above all the others.

It was a begging and pleading that he knew so very well although he had only heard it once years ago.

It was the sounds his sister had made the day that the Goblins had come to their village.

His blood turning to ice Goblin Slayer turned slowly to the source of the sound and saw another group of Goblins, cheering and guffawing at the rape that they watched. But through the cracks of the crowd he could see a face, once kind now broken.

Bright pink eyes stared back at him, bloodshot and wet with tears.

"Alex…" His sister's voice whispered clearly to him. "…Why?"

Before he could answer a hand fell onto his shoulder and turned him around. Through his shirt, his armor now gone somewhere he couldn't imagine, it felt cold and heavy. Towering above him was a Dark Figure not illuminated by the bonfires wearing a ragged red cloak and tarnished crown on its head, its pointed ears lined with jeweled earrings. He made to raise his sword and shield but found his hands empty. Not only empty, they were small and delicate. When the Goblins began to leave their gatherings and surround them Goblin Slayer realized that they now stood eye to eye with him.

He was a child again, as small and weak as the day he first encountered Goblins.

"Ahhh," the Dark Figure breathed, its words and breathe coloring the air a sickly green color, "my namesake and savior. I finally found you." A withered green hand with bony fingers attached to an impossibly long arm emerged out of the Dark Figure. Goblin Slayer was rooted to the spot as the hand got closer and closer, widening as it readied to close around him. "Such a fine world, so much for-"

* * *

"Hey," the Elf Bard said as he shook Goblin Slayer's shoulder, "wake up. It's morning." He opened his eyes to find the blonde Wood Elf looking down at him and holding a collection of fruits and berries in his arms. "I got breakfast," the Elf said as he moved away to sit across from Goblin Slayer, "I didn't see any sign of the Goblins so we should be free to get out of here."

"Hmm." Goblin Slayer hummed as he sat up, his back aching from the hard cave floor. Gazing behind the Elf Bard as he set the foraged food down to the mouth of the cave he could see the glow of the sunrise begin to illuminate the tree tops. "We'll need to move quickly. I don't know how these Goblins have been… raised but traditionally their nights are our days."

"We'll get to that." The Elf Bard said as he grabbed an apple that Goblin Slayer was reaching for. "But first," he continued taking a bite out of the red fruit, "why don't you tell me what the fuck is going on? Because last time I checked," he leaned forward and swallowed, "Goblins don't fucking talk or camp out in the middle of forests with fucking tents or take fucking prisoners that aren't women they can rape!"

"Actually Goblins sometimes have trouble telling the difference between Elven Men and Women." Goblin Slayer revealed casually. "Upon discovering that an Elf is in fact male they will typically leave them to the smaller and weaker members of the nest to rape while the others enjoy the women."

"That's…" The Elf Bard started to say before stopping and looking down at his apple. "…not what I needed to hear right now." With a sigh he ran a hand through his dirty long blonde hair. "So this… shit show… how'd it start?"

"It was… three days ago." Goblin Slayer remembered, reaching for and taking a collection of blue berries. "I took a quest to clear out a Goblin nest that had recently raided a village and captured a young woman." He popped a blue berry into his mouth and began to chew. "I noticed… oddities very quickly, everything seemed so unlike typical Goblin behavior." He swallowed and popped another blue berry. "I eventually found the woman, alone and unharmed tied to a tree on a hill, and discovered a small group of Goblins hiding in covered holes." He swallowed and popped another. "That is when I first encountered one of these talking Goblins."

"What'd it say?" The Elf Bard asked, now half done with his apple.

"It… congratulated me on my skill." Goblin Slayer answered, closing his eyes and sneering internally. "It said that it was to observe me, maybe to follow me and find out where I lived." His blood chilled for a moment as he imagined these Goblins going to the farm and finding the Rancher's Niece.

'Be calm, they have no way of knowing about her if they bothered to find and follow me home. Not with that talking Goblin dead.' This thought and the mental image of the original talking Goblin's death, its head crushed and brains splattered, soothed him greatly.

"So these Goblins kidnapped a girl just to find you?" The Elf Bard asked. "How'd they know you'd show up? Why do they even give a shit about you?"

"I take Quests to hunt Goblins every day, sometimes two or three if they're close enough to each other." Goblin Slayer explained, moving onto his own apple. "If they did something to get the Guild involved then either I or someone else would have come to them. The talking Goblin never said that they got me on their first attempt." He paused to take a loud bite out of his apple. "I'll have to ask at the Guild to see if anyone else had a similarly strange Goblin Quest."

"…So that's why all we found was that de-, that talking Goblin Shaman?" The Elf Bard asked quietly, thinking about his dead Party members. "All of this was a trap for you? Would they have left my Party go if you didn't show up?"

"Most likely." Goblin Slayer answered plainly. "What happened to your Party? I presume they are all dead?" Silence was his answer. "…Unfortunate, I'm sorry."

"…No, no." The Elf Bard said shaking his head. "There's no way any of us could have seen this coming. We were just expecting a regular Goblin nest, not… this."

"Actually it was possible that your Party would have still all died, and you as well, if this had been even a small nest." Goblin Slayer said bluntly as he finished his apple.

"What?!" The Elf Bard shouted as he jumped to his feet angrily. "How the hell can you think that?"

"Almost every week a Party of new Adventurers takes a Quest to clear out a Goblin nest and does not come back." Goblin Slayer answered as he picked up another apple. "Sometimes the next Party finishes the Quest… sometimes it takes the one after that." The anger left the Elf Bard's face as realization began to dawn. "A Fighter with a longsword, not meant for fighting in caves, and a large shield, a Ranger with a longbow and no way to shoot in the dark, a Gnome Wizard with only a few spells, and an Elven Bard." Goblin Slayer looked up at the Elf Bard and tried to be as sympathetic as he could. "I'm sorry, but this was going to end in blood regardless."

"I… I…" The Elf Bard tried to speak as Goblin Slayer went back to eating. He stared at the blood covered Human for a moment before settling back down on the cave floor. "…Why are these Goblins after you? Where did they come from?"

"…I saved the woman who gave birth to their Father." Goblin Slayer answered honestly before taking a bite. "It was a year ago apparently, she was a heathen and her family spurned the Church's offer to take her in and deal with the Goblin child. The Child would be special, the first of these talking Goblins. And," he took another bite, "it wants to meet me so it sends its children."

"…By the First Trees." The Elf Bard swore. "What are you going to do?"

"I am going to find and kill this Goblin." Goblin Slayer answered immediately. "It and all of its children, they will be hunted down and killed to the last infant."

"You, you kill the babies?!" The Elf Bard asked shocked. "But, but they're harmless!"

"Not forever." Goblin Slayer answered as he finished his apple and stood. "Goblins reach maturity three to four days after being born. And then they become as dangerous as the rest of their species." He moved to gather up his pack, sword, and shield. He also made a note to buy some new socks and boots soon, his feet were dirty from running most of the night.

"Do you think you can? I mean, kill them all?" The Elf Bard asked as he followed him, picking up his dagger and lute. "There must be a lot for them to send, like, sixty Goblins after you."

"If the Shaman was telling the truth then there are hundreds of them." Goblin Slayer answered and the Elf Bard nearly dropped his lute in shock.

"H-hundreds?! How?!" The largest horde of Goblins that the Elf Bard had ever heard of had been only 130 in some old story his village Story Tree had told him.

"Magic." Goblin Slayer revealed, remembering what the Goblin Shaman had told him. "I have… suspicions that I hope to confirm soon."

"How are you going to stop these Goblins?!" The Elf Bard asked perplexed as Goblin Slayer moved to the mouth of the cave. "The numbers alone…"

"Yes," Goblin Slayer said as he came to the mouth of the cave and looked at the early morning sky, "if I don't die trying it will probably take me the rest of my life. But that's fine… I planned to die fighting Goblins ever since I was a child."

"You don't even know where they are!" The Elf Bard shouted. "How are you going to find them?!"

"I'll manage." Goblin Slayer answered. "Although I pray that I find them before they begin raiding." He closed his eyes for a moment and saw the burned city, the corpses, and raped women from his dreams. "I know how Goblins work. At a hundred strong they will go from town to town destroying everything. With the numbers these Goblins have and led by intelligent ones… I have no idea what kind of hell they will bring."

There was a long moment of silence between the two Adventurers before the Elf Bard sighed and pulled out a pack that sounded heavy with coins. "Here." He said as he handed it over to Goblin Slayer. "I found it with the Goblin's things while I was rescuing you. They're Dwarf coins," he explained as Goblin Slayer pulled one out to look at it, "but not any kind I've ever seen. Take it to a collector and maybe they could tell you where they came from. Might lead you to your Goblins."

"Thank you." Goblin Slayer said as he put the pack away. "For this and rescuing me. If you had not come along I would be most likely on my way to their home but in an incredibly bad position."

"Yeah, well." The Elf Bard said as he smiled and looked at the trees surrounding the mouth of the cave. "It was the right thing to do, couldn't leave anyone in the hands of Goblins. You'd have probably done the same thing."

"No." Goblin Slayer answered immediately and the Elf Bard turned to look at him shocked. "I would have lit the tree line around the camp on fire with the exception of a single small opening that the Goblins would have rushed to escape through. This area I would have littered with traps and have faced as many of the Goblins I could, doing my best to kill a few and duck back into the trees." He explained, ignoring the growing frown on the Elf Bard's face. "Between the fire causing panic, the traps catching stragglers, and my hit and run tactics I could probably have killed all of them. The two special Goblins leading them would have been the biggest challenge however, especially the Shaman." He mused, having never seen a Shaman use a Paralysis spell before. "If you had not been raped and murdered or died from the smoke then I would have probably found you while scavenging the camp."

"…You like this with everybody you adventure with?" The Elf Bard asked after a moment of silence.

"I hunt Goblins alone mostly." Goblin Slayer answered.

"Yeah I can believe that." The Elf Bard said as he began to walk toward the tree line. "Let's get going, you got a crusade to go on and I feel like I got a drink waiting for me."

* * *

The walk back to the Adventurer's Guild only took a few hours and despite getting raised eyebrows at the city gates for being covered in blood, and barefoot in Goblin Slayer's case, they made it back as the Guild opened.

"Does the bar start serving drinks this early?" The Elf Bard asked as he looked down at his blood covered red suit. "I'm going to go get a drink, or three, and then go get this cleaned."

"I don't know." Goblin Slayer answered as he walked toward the reception desks, his dirty feet leaving footprints on the newly cleaned wood floor. "Excuse me," he said to the Guild Girl as she blanched at his bloody clothes, "I have an unusual request."

"Umm." The Guild Girl said as she looked at his blood soaked clothes, her face a little white at the sight. "What, what is it? We just opened so…"

"I need to look at the records of all the Quests I've taken while registered as an Adventurer here." Goblin Slayer explained as he took off his steel Adventurer's Tag and handed it over. "If the files are not under my name then they may be under Goblin Slayer."

"Oh! You're Mr. Goblin Slayer?" The Guild Girl said surprised. "I didn't recognize you without the armor. What about that Party of Porcelain Adventurers? Did any of them survive?" She asked worried, remembering how he had so coldly said yesterday before setting off that they were most likely dead.

"They were all alive when I arrived." He said and she sighed in relief. "But only he lives." Goblin Slayer continued, pointing to the Elf Bard who stood at the bar.

"What happened?!" The Guild Girl asked shocked. "You said that they were alive when you got there!"

"This Quest has become… complicated." Goblin Slayer admitted. "The Goblins still live so it may be best to mark this Quest as failed. But about my records…"

"I'll… ask my boss." The Guild Girl said as she left her desk and went into the back offices. Goblin Slayer was left waiting at the reception desk as the morning Adventurers began to trickle in, either eager to get a new Quest or reporting in for one completed the day before. Most of them gave him a wide berth, eying this strange barefoot man covered in blood not knowing that he was in fact Goblin Slayer.

Almost no one save the Cow Girl, her Uncle, and now the Elf Bard, the Goblin Shaman, and the Guild Girl knew what he looked like under the armor.

So it was very unusual for three of them to be under one roof.

"…Alex?" A quiet familiar voice asked behind him and Goblin Slayer's blood went cold as he turned around to find the Cow Girl standing there. She looked at him with a mix of worry and confusion. "Where's your armor? And your boots?"

"…They were taken from me." Goblin Slayer answered honestly.

"You were robbed?!" She exclaimed as she moved to stand with him and inspected his bloody clothing. "Are you alright?! Is that where you've been the last few days?"

"I'm fine." Goblin Slayer assured in his stoic way. "But no, they were taken only yesterday. I've been dealing with a… complicated Quest."

"But don't you only take Goblin Quests?" The Cow Girl asked confused. "Did you… did you meet a kind of Goblin you've never seen before?" The twitch of Goblin Slayer's face was all the answer she needed as the Guild Girl returned from the back offices.

"Excuse me." She said, getting his attention. "They said that you can look over your old Quests by I have to be there to watch you."

"That is fine." He said moving to follow her.

"Alex!" The Cow Girl exclaimed to get his attention back to her. "What happened on your Quest? Why are your clothes covered in blood? Is it yours?"

"It is not." He answered plainly. "I'll explain everything when I get back to the farm in a couple hours. I have some business to take care of before I return." He did not face her when he said this because it was a lie and he did not trust his bare face.

"Oh I can wait, it'll be safer traveling back with you anyway!" She argued as the Guild Girl began to fidget in place, wanting to get back to work.

"No… I don't think it will be." Goblin Slayer said quietly. He turned around to face and with the sternest face he could muster said. "Go home."

"What? Why?" She asked confused. "Alexander what's going on? What… what kind of Goblin did you meet?" She asked going for what had gotten the biggest reaction from him.

"Please." Goblin Slayer begged, his voice low. "I'll tell you when it's over. The Farm should be safe. But you and your Uncle will have to keep an eye out for Goblins while I'm gone."

"While you're gone?! Where are you going?!" She begged to know, now on the verge of tears and holding her hands to her chest. "Alexander, you're starting to scare me!"

"Umm, excuse me?" The Guild Girl interjected. "But I need to get back to work, there are other Adventurers that need help."

"I'm sorry." Goblin Slayer said to the Guild Girl and then turned back to the Cow Girl and moved in close to her. "…Emma." He said using her name for the first time in a long time. Her eyes widened and he could see how bright and pink they were even while she was crying.

They were just like his sister's eyes.

They were just like the talking Goblins eyes.

"Until this is over… it may not be safe to be around me." He said softly. "I don't know where this…" He stopped short of saying Quest. "Where this… Adventure will take me or how long. But I can't abandon it." She was full on crying now, her eyes red and nose starting to run. "If I… don't come back then you'll need to for-"

He was cut off when she crashed into him and hugged him, digging her head into his bloody shirt. He stiffened and looked down at her, unsure of how to react. "Don't… don't talk like that." She cried. "You'll come back. Promise me that. Promise you'll come back."

"I can't," he said honestly, "there are possibly hundreds of Goblins an-"

"Please!" She sobbed. "If you promise… I'll let you go. If you don't then, then, I'll follow you!" It was a ridiculous image, she was used to hard living and work yes but that was all calm and domestic. She had never held a weapon before or even seen wounds inflicted by them. He doubted she even knew what equipment or provisions to bring on even short trips.

"…I promise." Goblin Slayer swore.

"Say it like you mean it," she cried, looking up at him, "I know when you lie. You hesitate or freeze up."

"I promise." The man in the blood soaked clothes swore.

This was finally enough and she let him go, wiping her eyes free of tears. "Bring, bring me something back alright? From wherever you're going?" She tried to smile but it was obviously strained. "This is your first real adventure right? You should have something to remember it with."

"I'll try." Goblin Slayer said and she turned and walked out of the Guild, Adventurers watching her go and trying to pretend that they weren't watching their conversation. He turned back to the Guild Girl who was sniffling a little herself at the scene. "I'm sorry for the hold up. I'm ready to go into the archives now."

With no other words she led him to the back offices and into the large archive room where records of every living Adventurers previous Quests were stored.

* * *

Stonewall.

The last Quest he had taken as a Porcelain rank that he had lost his Adventurers Tag on, a note on the report confirmed it, was from a village called Stonewall. It was a day's walk to the North, the direction he and the Elf Bard had just come from.

Which meant that he would be heading right back into the path of the Goblin Shaman and the remains of its horde.

"That was quite a show you put on." The Elf Bard said when Goblin Slayer emerged from the back offices, leaning against a wall with a drink in hand. He had lost his bloody suit and was dressed in a simple white shirt and brown pants. "Was that your girl?"

"No," Goblin Slayer answered walking passed the Elf who followed, "she is a friend. I stay at her Uncle's Farm with them."

"She sure didn't sound like a friend." The Elf Bard remarked taking a drink. "So you're heading out already? Not even going to resupply or get the coins looked at?"

"I have plenty of supplies and provisions, I'll buy the rest on the road." He neared the door and turned to face the Elf. "I'll have the coins looked at in one of the city's I'll probably stop in."

"Where you headed anyway?" The Elf Bard asked quizzically. "I mean the coins are the only clue to their nest. …If one of the Goblins wasn't just a collector now that I think about it." He mused.

"I'm going to Stonewall." Goblin Slayer revealed. "It's where the mother of this Father Goblin is from. It's where all this started."

"Are you hoping to pick up some kind of trail?" The Elf Bard asked setting his drink down on a nearby windowsill.

"Possibly." Goblin Slayer answered. "But… I'm hoping to find the mother. The Hobgoblin never said that she was dead and if she is then I want to know how."

"…Huh." The Elf Bard said after a pause. "Well, good luck to you." He extended his right hand and Goblin Slayer looked at it for a moment before he put his own out to shake it. "If you come back alive from this madness then be sure to come tell me the story alright? It'll probably be something worth writing a song about!" With a smile and a clap on his back the Elf Bard picked up his drink and downed it as he walked back to the bar.

Goblin Slayer watched him walk for a moment before he turned and left the Adventurer's Guild and then leaving the city to begin his journey.

After making a brief stop to buy some new socks and a pair of boots of course.

* * *

By the time that night rolled around the Elf Bard had had a lot of drinks.

And while the Adventurer's Guild provided food and drink they did not rent out rooms. So the Elf Bard found himself stumbling back to the inn in the dead of the night, singing softly to himself and he swayed back and forth.

"Oh the cool breeze stirs naught the… the… forest shadows." He hummed as he nearly tripped over a loose stone. "They shift and weave only for… for… the sight of the Dryad's breasts." It was not a particularly cultured song in the common tongue of Man but in Elvish it was quite beautiful.

Unbeknownst to him however a group of shadows followed behind, getting closer and closer as he sang and stumbled down the empty streets. By the time he noticed they were already upon him. He reeled around as a voice screamed and somehow managed to dodge a club aimed for his head.

Before him was a group of 5 angry and poorly dressed male Gnomes and a single male Halfling who stood behind them.

A Halfling with furious pink eyes.

Even drunk as he was the Elf Bard recognized those eyes from yesterday, when they had changed from normal yellow Goblin eyes. Before the Goblin Shaman with them killed his entire Party.

"Grab him you idiots!" The "Halfling" ordered to the collection of Gnomes in front of him and they rushed forward with very ungnome like cries.

The Elf Bard threw his hand out and somehow managed to slur his words together to form an eleven command. There was a crack of thunder that shook the windows around them and two of the "Gnomes" went flying. They crashed to the ground and their bodies morphed and shifted until they once again bore their true Goblin forms.

"Damn it!" The "Halfling" swore as he drew a dagger. "Want something done right…"

The Elf Bard had drawn his dagger now and was batting the still disguised Goblins away, inching back as smoothly as he could manage. The Shaman walked passed the Goblins and straight toward the Elf Bard with no sign of fighting stance or style at all.

The Elf Bard slashed out with his dagger when the Shaman got close enough only for it to dodge out of the way of his clumsy swing. Before he could swing his dagger again the Shaman kicked his left shin and easily brought him to his knees. The Shaman dropped his dagger and grabbed the Elf Bard's head with both hands.

He then pulled his head as far back as he could and slammed it into the Elf Bard's face, breaking his nose with a loud crunch.

"Something my little brother taught me." The Shaman said, his Halfling form maintaining shape as the Elf Bard moaned in dulled pain. "Before you and Kin Killer cleaved his skull open with a fucking axe!" The Goblins quickly tied his hands and feet together before lifting him up. "You're going to pay for that. Slowly if I have my way. But not until, you're going to take me to Kin Killer." He picked up his dagger and pressed it against the Elf Bard's face.

"First thing's first though," he leaned in and hissed, "where are my fucking coins?"


	5. Interlude: A Day with the Goblins

The Shadow Goblin awakened with a groan as his head pounded to the beat of the great drums, the booming sounds nearly splitting his skull open. "What," he groaned as he rolled out of his bed and fell to the floor naked, "is that damned racket?"

"No idea what you're talking about." His wife answered as she flipped through the pages of the heavy book she was reading, having done so many times before. "You haven't moved all day so I assumed you were dead."

"Yeah you wish." He responded as he clutched his skull and stood, looking to his Human wife reclining on her bed at the opposite side of their room. A shackle fixed to a leg of the bed and secured around her ankle insured that she couldn't go more than a few feet from it. His bed was far enough away that she couldn't reach him even when trying her hardest. He learned on their wedding night that if he allowed her anywhere near his sleeping form that she would try to strangle him.

When he asked his Father for a wife 'with some spirit' he did not mean one that tried to kill him every time they had sex. He couldn't even say her body made up for it; big tits, a nice ass, long black hair, and gold eyes did not help him keep it up when she was trying to rip his throat out.

"So, how you doing this morning?" He asked as he moved to their dresser and a small bowl of purplish berries on top of it. He took one and popped it into his mouth, the juice foul tasting and tingling his tongue. The booming drums eased away into nothingness and he let out a content sigh.

"It's evening." She answered dryly as she closed the heavy book shut and laid it on her nightstand next to her lit candle. "What were you doing last night? Trying to empty the Nest's stock of ale by yourself? You smelled like a brewery."

'Coming to grips with the fact that my Father may be going mad in his old age.' The Shadow Goblin thought as he pulled out a drawer and got some child sized pants. "Heard that there was a new shipment of girls getting in, wanted to see what all my still bachelor brothers and nephews would be petitioning Father for. Met with a few, got some drinks, and I decided to warn them all about the joys of married life." She sneered at his lie. "Aww, don't make that face honey." He said as he turned around and walked over her. She flinched and recoiled slightly as he approached.

"What do you want?" She asked as he neared her bed. "Don't you have something to go do?"

"In a minute," he reassured as he stopped at the side of her bed, "how you doing really? You coming along okay?" His eyes flicked to her slightly bulging stomach under her pink nightgown which held their growing children.

"I'm fine." She answered firmly. "If they don't come by tomorrow morning then it'll be tomorrow afternoon, you know that."

"Yeah, yeah I know." He said raising his hands up in defense. "Just… do they… feel any different than the others?" He asked, still without any proper sons despite being married three months. All he had spawned so far had been the same idiots that could be found anywhere in the world, squatting in caves and living in filth.

"No." His wife sneered as she answered having developed joy in his continued denial of proper sons.

"Alright fine!" He exclaimed as he turned and stomped away back to the dresser. "I just heard from some of my brothers that their wives can tell when the batch is special alright?!"

"I'm not a nut case whose been raped into obedience!" She proudly declared. "They may be allowed to walk freely but I still have my dignity!"

"You know you could be thankful then, considering that you got paired off with me and not sent down to the Breeding House to be used as a reward for good little worker Goblins!" He shouted back as he pulled out a drawer and put on a child sized shirt. "Hell, even before that! When Father had his agents buy you and all those other girls at the slave auction you were about to be sold to the fucking Dark Elves!" He slammed the drawer shut and turned to face her. "Do you have any clue what they would have done to you?! Any idea?!"

"Stay away from me!" She cried as she picked up her book and held it up to throw it.

"They would have started with hot iron, branding your skin with the symbol of whatever clan fucking owned you." He took a step forward, pink eyes locked with hers. "Then they would have bled you, hanging you upside down for days but using their magic to keep you alive. Your blood would be used in whatever sick fucking ritual they got going on that week." Another step and her arms began to tremble. "Then you have either been put to public or… private use." A step and her eyes started to tear up. "Public use means anything from being a pack animal for whoever currently holds your leash to being used as a live target for the trainee slavers and their lizards. But private use," he said as he took another step, "that's some real sick shit."

"Please… stop." She asked, tearing up as he got closer.

"What's wrong?" He asked softly continuing forward. "Don't like thinking about how this is the best you could have hoped for?" He grinned evilly as he stopped suddenly. "That when your family sold you they were fine wi-"

She screamed in anger and flung her heavy book at him. The moment before it hit him his flesh burst into grey smoke and the book sailed through it, crashing to the stone floor. The smoke flew through the air, under his bed, and around back to her bed. The candle on her nightstand went out as the smoke came together above her to become the Shadow Goblin again, now holding a long dagger in his right hand. His left hand went to hold her mouth shut before she could scream and he rested his dagger against her neck. His night vision allowed him to see the terror in her eyes clearly.

"I thought I told you to stop trying to hurt me Susan dear." He said coldly, her body trembling. "I've given you three months now, this behavior is just childish now. I'm tired of making excuses for you, for having to keep you locked up like this because I don't know if you'll try to run the second I take my eyes off you."

She tried to say something and he just applied pressure on her mouth with his left hand.

"Quiet. Here's what's going to happen. You have two more weeks." He started. "If I don't see you behaving by then, and really behaving not acting, then I'm going to have to get remarried. You understand?" He let go of her mouth and she sucked in a breath.

"Yes… Charles." She answered and he smiled at the use of his name, stepping off of her bed and throwing his dagger back onto his.

"Great! Glad we understand each other dear." He turned as she tried to wipe her eyes clean. "Well I'm off. I'll check to see if they have any dresses in your size down in the Treasure Room. One way or another you'll be coming out of this room for the first time in three months. And I'll be damned if you aren't looking your best!"

Susan broke down into sobs as the Shadow Goblin stepped out of their home, not for the first time leaving her crying and afraid.

* * *

The upper floors of the Nest were where all of the Father's children and their families lived, enjoying fine stone construction of once upper class Dwarven homes and the warmth of still active lava flows to light it. The Shadow Goblin walked passed a Hobgoblin, his cousin Mark, walking with his wife, a Human named Rachel, carrying wood while she carried blankets and pillows. Three young Goblins, a best three days old, following behind all sharing the pink eyes that made up the "upper class" of this Nest.

He gave them all a warm greeting and listened patiently to Mark and Rachel's plan to build beds for their new additions. Desperate as he was for sons of his own he didn't see much point to it, within two days they'd have reached maturity and be capable of living on their own. Then they'd be assigned work by Father and given homes of their own, there were still plenty to go around as Dwarf nobles often built multiple guest houses.

Bidding them luck he continued on his way to the Treasure Room, once the grand vault of the ruling family of this Dwarven city. Now it served as the storehouse of all the goods that had been scavenged from the ruins and from their patrols and raiding parties. Inside he found of all sizes laid out, various pieces of furniture, and the great pile of gold, silver, and treasure in the center. All of this more or less free to take, social pressure kept most from getting greedy with their possessions.

"Ah, Charles!" A Goblin Lord, his older brother Lawrence, called as he entered with his elven wife whose name escaped the Shadow Goblin. "Just who I was hoping to see!" He said a quick word to his wife who smiled and went on her way to the furniture as he walked to join the Shadow Goblin at the clothes section.

"Brother Lawrence." He greeted, looking up at the Goblin Lord who like all his kind stood just under normal Human height. "What's up?"

"Father has a task for you." His older brother revealed. "We have not heard word from the expedition to…" he glanced at where his wife browsed the furniture and then bent down to whisper to him, "find Kin Killer since they reported that Roger was killed. Father fears the worst."

"Really? I thought deliberately seeking out the one guy who makes a name for himself hunting our kind would go perfectly." The Shadow Goblin responded sarcastically. "So what does Pops want? He want me to lead a reinforcement or rescue party or…" He trailed off, not speaking the third option aloud.

"Yes, that." The Goblin Lord confirmed with a grimace. "I believe that younger brother Albert is still at his workshop near the fields. If you leave now you can still catch him."

"Right, well I'll see you later. Say hi to your wife for me." The Shadow Goblin asked as left the Treasure Room empty handed.

Leaving the upper floors behind the Shadow Goblin descended into the lower floors of the Nest, the glow of the lava flows fading away into pure darkness. Not that this was a problem for the hundreds of Goblins that lived down here. The streets were packed with Goblins of various kinds pushing and shoving each other as they went about on some ordered business. Some of the nimbler ones climbed above the streets and scurried along the roofs of the buildings or over the rubble that littered most of the Nest.

"Out of the way morons!" He shouted as he stepped onto Main Street. "Goblin with at least average intelligence coming through!" The Goblins, trained to recognize and follow the orders of every Goblin with pink Human eyes, parted and pushed against each other to allow for him to walk unimpeded. He made his way to the old mining tunnels of the city, the main tunnel and gate buried under a pile of rubble long ago, and along the way passed by what had once been an honor dueling ring. Once upon of time this arena had been used to settle matters of honor between Dwarf clans and celebrate holidays dedicated to the Dwarven God's of War, Honor, and Nobility.

Now it was the Breeding House, a long line of eager Goblins of all kinds snaking down the road waiting to get inside. The Shadow Goblin nodded to his nephews that served as guards, thankful that he no longer had to pull such duty. The smell of the women inside often excited the Goblins waiting outside and made them difficult to keep orderly, he sometimes had to beat a few down to stop a riot from breaking out.

That had happened only once, before he was born, but his elder brothers and Father spoke of the event and result on the defenseless women with disgust and horror.

His nephews waved as he passed taking the silver coin from a common Goblin who hurried inside as soon as the door was opened to him. All of the Goblins in the line carried a single coin, most silver and rarely a gold. These were rewards from their managers for good or superb work and would earn them time with the women who were not married off upon arrival. Silver got the Goblin access to a "common room", one of the old duel rings, where 3 to 4 women would be available for group use. Gold got them access to a "private room", anything from a repurposed private booth to old cleaner closets, where they would have a woman all to themselves.

Continuing passed this the Shadow Goblin continued walking for an hour, the crowd around him slowly thinning into nothingness, until he arrived at a roughly built gate in the side of this city's surrounding cavern walls.

"Hey! Aradan! Open the fucking gate!" He called out as Goblins scuttled into view to gaze down at him from the top of the gate. "I gotta go see Al!"

"Dammit! Who the fuck is…" A common Goblin with pink Human eyes shouted as he appeared on top of the gate with the others. "Oh, it's you Uncle Charlie." He said looking down at the Shadow Goblin. "You forget the schedule? We only open at dawn and dusk, Al will b-"

"You'll open 'cause I got orders from Father, I need to see Al now!" The Shadow Goblin cut him off. "So just open up will ya?"

"Alright, alright!" Aradan shouted throwing up his hands. "You heard him deadbeats! Get to work!" He ordered and the Goblins went quickly to work, working pulleys and levers to begin the process of raising the crude gate. "So what's going on?!" Aradan shouted over the noise.

"Got no word from the party sent after Kin Killer! Need to check in!" The Shadow Goblin replied, having not been told to keep his task a secret.

"Well fuck!" Aradan replied, the platform he stood on shaking as the gate settled into place. "That sucks!"

"Yeah no shit!" The Shadow Goblin responded as he walked through the open gate into the abandoned mining tunnel out of the Nest.

* * *

The walk through the abandoned mining tunnels was uneventful, any beasts and monsters routinely cleared out by patrols and the way guided by Shaman Totems. After an hour and a half of walking he came to the opening of the tunnel and he stepped out into the light of a evening sun peaking over the mountain ranges all around him. Walking to the edge of a cliff he looked down at the valley below that was shadowed in darkness and had been cleared of trees and was now covered in fields and crude buildings. Stepping away he turned to begin walking down the winding cliff side path that snaked down the side of the mountain to the valley below.

The trip down only took a few minutes and soon he was walking among the Goblins that worked the fields as they backed up and readied to end their day's work. Almost all of them were Shamans, their yellow goat like eyes marking them as beneath him despite having magic at their command. They tended to great bushes in the fields that grew the same purplish berries that he had eaten when he woke up only a few hours ago.

"Yo, berry picker!" The Shadow Goblin said to the first Shaman he came across. "Where's your boss? Where's Al?" The Shaman pointed to a large barn like structure at the edge of the fields. "Thanks, now get back to work." He walked passed the Shaman as he sneered behind his back and muttered curses to himself in Goblin. It was simple but it roughly came out to "Big walking shit eater." The Shadow Goblin pretended to not hear him as he walked to the barn and found the main doors wide open. "Hey Al I need you to tell m-"

His words were cut off as a large wooden contraption was wheeled out of the barn, pulled by a team of common Goblins. A Goblin Shaman dressed is clean white robes and bent glasses followed them and noticed his brother standing there watching. "Oh hello Charles, what brings you out here so late in the day?" He asked as the Goblins stopped pulling the contraption and now started pushing it to apparently face away from the fields.

"What's all this?" The Shadow Goblin asked as he watched the Goblins work a crank that pulled a large spoon looking piece back.

"This is a Catapult." Albert said with a great deal of pride. "Father has tasked me with building a number of devices from some schematics he had purchased. Next I'm hoping to build a Callista and then something called a Siege Tower." He closed his eyes and shook his head. "Although that will take a great deal more materials and wor-"

"Raaa!" A Goblin cried as it climbed into the spoon looking piece. "Thaarg!"

"Wait a moment." Albert said when he saw what the Goblin was doing. He walked over to the Catapult and looked at the common Goblin happily sitting in the spoon. "Get out, that's for rocks not good Goblins." The Goblin ignored his overseer and continued to rock in place smiling like an idiot. "Stupid and disobedient. Fine." Albert frowned as he walked over to a lever on the side of the Catapult. "Have fun then."

Albert pulled the lever and the rope holding the spoon back was let loose sending it crashing forward into a wooden bar held in the air. The Goblin in the spoon thing went flying as his seat was forced to stop, screaming in either joy or absolute terror.

"Hahahaha!" The Shadow Goblin laughed as he saw the little green dot fly away a great distance and then crash into the ground. The body managed to fly back into the air when landing before crashing down again. "He… he skipped! Like a rock!" He said through his tears, not seeing something this funny in a long time.

"Yeah," Albert said with a smile before turning to one of the remaining Goblins, "go mark where he landed with some rocks or something." The Goblin nodded and ran off while the others worked the crank again to reset the Catapult. "Now back to why you're out here?"

"Whoo." The Shadow Goblin breathed as he calmed down. "I need, I need to know which Work Group is matched with Expedition Party C. We haven't heard anything from them since they found out that Kin Killer murdered Roger." He explained, remembering from the report that they had found their brother with his head bashed into paste and his guard dead. It had been a major contributor to his binge drinking yesterday.

"Well you're in luck because all of my work group is matched with them." Albert smiled and gestured to the Goblins working on the Catapult. "Feel free to take one of them."

"Thanks, I'll…" The Shadow Goblin stopped talking for a moment and got an evil idea. "You said all of your work group right?" He asked as he turned to face the fields and looked at the Shaman that had muttered insults to him. "Even the Shamans?"

* * *

The Goblin Shaman behind him whined as they climbed the long circle staircase up to the highest point in the Nest. "Quit crying." The Shadow Goblin ordered as he continued up the stairs, seeing a light at the top. "We're almost there." Soon they had reached the top of the long staircase and he pushed the door open revealing a small chamber.

Before them was a mostly empty space that was open to the outside and faced the setting sun. The peaks of the mountains and the clouds were below them as this chamber was at the very peak of the mountain that their Nest was settled in. "Alright now stand in the cent-" The Shadow Goblin was cut off as a common Goblin silently stepped out of the shadows to stare at him, its chest bearing a strange red claw marking. Before long three more had emerged from the shadows to stare at him and the Goblin Shaman silently.

"Ah, I'm… sorry to disturb you all." The Shadow Goblin said, he had always been a little creeped out by these strange Goblins. They refused most tasks, spent almost all their time up here, and still somehow managed to convert others to their little cult. The only time they had willingly joined any Work Group or Expedition Party was the one to find Kin Killer a couple weeks ago. That should have set off a lot of warning bells now that he thought about it. "I'll be done in a few hours so just ignore us okay?"

The red marked Goblins stared at him for a moment before turning and returning to the shadows again. Sighing he beckoned the Shaman to follow him into the center of the chamber. "On your knees." He instructed and the Shaman did as commanded, too tired to reject a chance to rest. As he walked around to stand behind the Shaman he caught a glimpse of a doorway in the shadows that the red marked Goblins had disappeared into and for a brief moment he saw a room filled with candles and single suit of armor, sparkling clean, laid out reverently. There was a flash of a face from one of the Goblins and the door was shut, leaving nothing but shadows again.

"…Fucking freaks." The Shadow Goblin muttered as he laid his hands on the Shamans head. "Face forward, eyes closed." He commanded and the Shaman did so. "Think of your family, your brothers from your Father and Mother. Breathe slowly." The Shaman's breathing slowed as commanded, doing its best to remember how many brothers it had from the same Father and Mother. "Good." The Shadow Goblin said as he moved to kneel in front of the Shaman, rolling his jaw. "Keep breathing and thinking of them."

The Shaman remained like that for a moment, calmly breathing and thinking of all his brothers that made up this grand Nest.

Then the Shadow Goblin lunged forward and buried his teeth into the Shaman's neck, ripping it open with ease.

"GRAHHH!" The Shaman cried out as it fell back, the Shadow Goblin ripping and tearing its throat more. Blood poured out and over the Shadow Goblin drenching his clothes and face crimson. The Shaman tried to push him off but it was already too weak from blood loss to dislodge him as he began to suck his blood.

"Almost there, don't die yet." The Shadow Goblin commanded as he got off the Shaman and moved to cradle his head up. "Keep thinking about your brothers, you're doing this for them." With that he lifted the Shaman's head up and smashed it against the stone floor. There was a sick cracking sound and the Shaman's body twitched once, his eyes rolling up. Pulling his head back up the Shadow Goblin smashed him two more times before he was satisfied.

Feeling around the cracked open head the Shadow Goblin jammed his fingers into the soft flesh, pushing aside fragmented bone to get to the brains. Carefully he scooped out as much as he could from the tiny hole and ate it, sucking down the pulverized gray matter as he had done a few times before. After eating enough of the brain, about a quarter of it he would guess, he began to feel the voices at the edge of his hearing.

"Good job." He said as he left the corpse and walked to stand in the open air platform of the chamber. Gazing out at the setting sun and the clouds the voices became stronger and stronger. As he kneeled he could make out words. Most of them were Goblin until he came upon a familiar voice.

"You! You! And you! Come with me! We're going to get that son of a bitch! We're going to find Kin Killer!" It was the voice of his brother Thomas, a Shaman that had been part of the party sent to find and bring back the Kin Killer. Judging by his tone and word choice it wasn't going well.

Breathing deeply the Shadow Goblin followed this voice, following it beyond the chamber, beyond the mountains, beyond the lands around the mountains.

He followed it a great distance, nearly losing it sometimes.

"Alright, all of you stand still! I'm going to apply the spell now. If any of you move and fuck this up I will skin you!" His brother warned as he got closer.

The time it took to follow a voice over 400 miles away was great, it took hours for him to perfectly match his hearing and thoughts with the chosen Goblin.

By the time that his spirit had left his body it was night fall, the blood on his clothes had dried and hardened and the Goblins with the red claw markings had come to watch him, surrounding his body with silent staring eyes.

* * *

"-hing's first though," his brother Thomas hissed as he opened his eyes and blinked away the haze, "where are my fucking coins?"

"Wha," the Shadow Goblin tried to speak, this body unused to such activity, "wha… what tha hell is goin' on?" He asked as he looked at the scene before him, getting to grips with his surroundings. Before him was a Halfling pressing his dagger against the face of a tied up Elf and standing around them were two Gnomes and two Goblins wearing the exact same clothes.

"Who said that?!" The Halfling asked and looked around wildly and the Shadow Goblin realized that this was his brother Thomas in disguise.

'Meaning that those Gnomes are really Goblins and they,' he looked over at the two Goblins, 'got knocked out of their disguises. But,' his gaze flicked to the blonde Elf tied up and on the ground, 'who the fuck is she?' Clearing his throat to catch his brother's attention he said, "I did Tommy."

"How the fu-, oh no." His brother said surprised until he realized who he was really talking to. The blonde Elf looked supremely confused about what was happening.

"Yeah it's me Tommy." He said taking a step forward and looking down to discover that he was disguised as a Gnome. He looked at his strange hands before continuing on. "Now would you mind telling me what the fuck is going on?"

 **Down down to Goblin town.**


End file.
